Perfect
by I Want A Pet Wombat
Summary: Santana Lopez was smoking. She knew that, hell the whole school knew that. She looked perfect - she only wished she could have felt that way too. Deals with eating disorder. Rachel/Santana friendship. T for language. No longer a one-shot haha!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer- Nope, still don't own Glee as of last time I checked.**

**So yeah I kinda got the idea for this story from that line Santana says in the episode Home. You know the one "You can feel terrible and look great or get kicked off the team when that reporter gets here." And we obviously all know Santana looks great, which according to her means you feel terrible. I would really love for someone else to write a fic based on this line, I think there is so much potential in those words. Anyway, on with the story!**

Santana Lopez was smoking. She knew that, hell the whole school knew that. In fact she would probably go as far as calling herself the sexiest bitch in that place, because let's face it - she was hot. And as she outlined her lips in pink gloss her image in the mirror totally reflected that, with the knee high leather boots, dress that touched the tip of her ass and hair straightened to perfection. She looked perfect and as she walked out of her room she only wished she could have felt that way too.

It was the annual bi-weekly party at Puck's house, and all the glee kids plus a few other jocks and Cheerios deemed worthy enough would be there. The party was already in full swing by the time she got there, an indication that it was going to be one hell of a night. She grabbed the first bottle she saw, immediately chugging half of it down in one gulp. Maybe the alcohol would help get rid of the pounding in her head, although the logical side of her brain told her it would just make it worse in the morning. Her brain was quickly shut up with another long drink of liquid. She didn't come here to be rational; she came here to get wasted. Well at least that's what she told everybody – none of them were sober enough to realise she had a bottle of coke. Whatever, she could just tell them she had already added scotch to it.

She made her way downstairs to the basement, frowning slightly at a couple making out in the hallway. She wished she could just drink herself into oblivion and forget this whole party ever happened, but that was not an option. Drunk people are sloppy, and sloppy people tell secrets. There was no way anyone could find out about hers, it would just be too risky, hence the soberness. If she had it her way she wouldn't even be here, but being the top dog at school meant reputation was everything and just being at one of Puck's parties raised your rep by at least twenty percent. It was just one of those unspoken rules of McKinley, cool kids partied, others did not. She rolled her eyes as she saw Rachel walking past with a box of pizza. Every rule had its exceptions.

"Would you like some pizza?" The shorter brunette offered to Santana.

"No thanks midget, I had a big lunch." Santana replied disinterestedly, although her heart was racing.

Rachel's brow furrowed in confusion as she processed what Santana had said. "You didn't eat lunch today, I remember because Brittany tried to feed you her fries. You told her that you had a big breakfast!" Rachel declared accusingly.

"Breakfast, lunch whatever, it was a big meal okay! Now get lost hobbit!" Santana snapped, shouldering past the girl to make her way towards a crowd of Cheerios. When Rachel left with no further questioning she let out a sigh of relief, her stomach grumbling in protest. She let out a silent prayer that the music was too loud for anyone else to hear.

Quinn was on her way back from the bathroom when she ran into Rachel, who was still holding the untouched box of pizza.

"Are you serious? You're at a party full of jocks and not one slice of pizza has been taken?" Quinn exclaimed, reaching in to grab herself a slice.

"I haven't been downstairs yet," Rachel offered by way of explanation. "I offered some to Santana but she said something about still being full from breakfast." The brunette shrugged her shoulders.

"Breakfast? That girl hasn't eaten breakfast since middle school. Santana's lactose intolerant and believes that all the best breakfast foods contain milk, so in some weird hard-headed decision of hers she came to the conclusion that if she can't eat the good stuff she won't eat any at all." Quinn exclaimed with a huff of annoyance. "She's worse than a two year old!"

"Can't she just use soy milk?" Rachel asked, wrinkling her nose in thought.

"Doesn't taste the same apparently" Quinn called over her shoulder as she headed downstairs, chewing on her pizza.

Santana sat down on one of the overstuffed couches in the Puckerman's basement. She was feeling a little lightheaded, and her stomach was starting to pain with hunger. It was worth it though – what was that thing she had told Mercedes? Oh yeah, you can either feel terrible and look great or get kicked off the team. Well in her case the social ladder. She was too good of a gymnast for Sue to kick her off the Cheerios. She groaned under her breath as she noticed Rachel approaching her with a determined look on her face, still holding that damn box of pizza.

Rachel glared at her. "I know you haven't eaten today. When was the last time you ate something?"

"It was on day beginning with T" Santana answered cryptically, pretending to scan the room.

Rachel gasped. "You haven't eaten since yesterday?" Santana didn't bother to correct her that the T day she was thinking of was Tuesday, not Thursday. It was close enough. "Santana that's terrible! You have to look after your health! I am not leaving until you eat a slice of pizza!" Rachel screeched, drawing the attention of various other people in the room.

"What are you looking at?" Santana snapped at them, effectively making them divert their attention elsewhere. She turned back to Rachel "I can't eat the pizza anyway, I'm lactose intolerant." She replied smugly.

"It's vegan. No lactose." Rachel replied back equally as smug, crossing her hands across her chest. Santana sighed and weighed up her options. If she didn't eat the stupid slice of pizza she knew Berry would stay there all night, and that would not look good for her rep. On the other hand if she ate the pizza it would not look good on her body. Her stomach let out a large growl, causing Rachel to raise her eyebrows and look expectantly at Santana. With one final decision she reached her hand out, pulling the smallest slice out of the box.

Her tastebuds danced in anticipation as she brought the slice up to her mouth. Gosh how long had it been since she had indulged in something as simple as pizza? She held back a moan of delight as the spicy sauce and vegetables slid down her throat with the hot bread. She polished off the slice quickly, sparing a longing glance towards the box before putting her bitch face back on.

"There I ate it, are you happy now?" Santana snarled, rolling her eyes.

"It's a start." Rachel said whilst pursing her lips. She hadn't missed the look Santana had thrown to the remaining slices of pizza, but she had clearly gotten the message that the Latina was not going to eat anymore. And she was starting to get a suspicion about why, but there was no way she was dumb enough to push Santana any further than she already had tonight. She decided to go out to the garden to get some fresh air and clear her mind, needing a break from her worries.

Santana sat on the couch thinking about what she had just done. She frowned, placing a hand on her stomach. She swore that it was already bloated, making her look fat and ugly. Well at least fat, she could never look ugly, everyone knew that. Her stomach twisted with guilt, feeling worse than it did before when it was empty. Her stomach suddenly lurched, making her run for the bathroom with her hand clamped over her mouth. Leaning over the toilet the contents of her stomach were puked back up, a fine layer of sweat forming on her brow from the effort.

"Hey Lopez," Puck slurred entering the bathroom, "what are you doing here?"

"Drunk too much." The Latina said through gritted teeth, wishing he would go away and leave her to vomit in peace.

"Okay. I'll just go use the bushes out front." Puck said, the words blending together as he staggered back out of the room.

Rachel jumped at hearing the sound of someone puking on the opposite side of the bush she was sitting next to out in the front yard. She rolled her eyes, from the sounds of things the party would probably start winding up soon. After an internal debate she stood up to see if the person needed any help.

"Noah!" She exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing out here?"

"Lopez is hogging the bathroom, said she'd drunken too much. Never was very good at holding her alcohol." Puck managed to spit out before leaning over and heaving into the bush again.

Rachel frowned at this revelation. She had been with the Latina for a good portion of the night, and both times she had seen her she was drinking from the same bottle of coke. And Rachel knew for a fact that there was no alcohol in it because Santana had once admitted during a game of truth or dare that she would rather kiss Jacob Ben-Israel than drink coke with alcohol in it, something about it being to fizzy and bubbly to be enjoyable. Of course Rachel was the only one actually sober enough during that game to remember anything, seeing as how she was often the designated driver. When you're drunk her loud annoying voice makes it easier to just obey whatever she's saying than to try and argue. Which was why, once again, she was at this party sober. Rachel decided to go see what could be causing her also sober counterpart to be throwing up, and she didn't have a good feeling about it.

"Are you stalking me on purpose! What do you want RuPaul?" Santana growled. Couldn't people just leave her alone for five minutes?

"Why were you throwing up?" Rachel asked quietly.

Internally Santana started panicking. Rachel definitely knew something was up with her and that girl was like a dog with a bone, she wouldn't give up until she got what she wanted. How was it that no one thought twice about her eating habits all year, yet Rachel seemed to have figured out her secret in one measly party?

"I know what you're thinking - I didn't throw up on purpose." Santana stated firmly. And it was true, it's not like she shoved her fingers down her throat or anything, it just sort of happened. "You know what this party blows, I'm leaving." Santana walked out, not giving Rachel a chance to question her.

That night Santana stood in front of her mirror, clad in just simple black underwear. She frowned as she looked in the mirror. Yeah she still looked totally hot, she must have gotten rid of all that pizza. She turned to walk off to her bathroom but paused as she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. A jiggle. Her thigh had jiggled. A tear formed in her eye as she pinched the skin there hard enough to bruise. She was useless. What kind of girl couldn't even control the fat on her own body? She sighed as she flopped down onto her bed, a silent tear escaping. It looked like she would have to go for an extra long run tomorrow to make up for it. For just once why couldn't she perfect? Maybe it would get better next week.

Monday morning rolled around, and Santana was walking to school. She glanced down at her phone, checking the time. She was cutting it fine but she should still be there for Glee in first period, not that Mr Schue would really care if she was a little bit late. She could have driven her car, but she had actually eaten dinner last night, if a piece of toast constitutes as dinner, and she needed to work it off before the calories morphed into permanent fat. She tensed as she heard a car pull up next to her, her features relaxing as she recognised Quinn's silver Jetta.

"Get in," Quinn called "you're going to be late otherwise."

Santana slid into the passenger seat after a few minutes of deliberation; she had already walked 2 miles, surely that was enough to burn off a slice of toast. She gave Quinn a slight smile in acknowledgement as she fastened her seatbelt while Quinn pulled away from the curb.

"So where's your car?" Quinn asked politely, but at the same time genuinely curious.

"Mami came home early on Friday, she wasn't too happy to find out that I was at a party." Santana explained, not telling Quinn that she actually wanted to walk. Santana's mother was recently back from drug rehab at age 33 and decided that maybe she should actually give a fuck about her daughter's life instead of going off partying every night. Needless to say Santana was not too happy about the fact her Mami was determined to make up for the crappy 16 years Santana had already lived and all her friends, meaning Puck, Quinn and Brittany knew this. Which of course gave Santana the perfect excuse.

Quinn smiled sympathetically. "That sucks, call me if you need a ride tomorrow, okay?" Santana nodded in response as they pulled in to a parking spot. With a final check to make sure the doors were locked the two girls headed off to the choir room.

Santana slid in to her usual seat in the back just before Mr Schue entered the room. Rachel's hand immediately shot up.

"Mr Schue, I have a song I'd like to sing!" Mr Schuester nodded in approval, motioning for her to go ahead. The piano started to play the opening chords for the song she had selected, and with a quick glance at Santana she launched into the lyrics.

_I told another lie today  
>And I got through this day<br>No one saw through my games  
>I know the right words to say<br>Like "I don't feel well"  
>"I ate before I came"<em>

Rachel chanced a quick glance over to Santana. She was sitting with her arms crossed defensively across her chest, her brow scrunched in a frown as she stared straight ahead with stony eyes.

_Then someone tells me how good I look_  
><em>and for a moment<em>  
><em>For a moment I am happy<em>  
><em>But when I'm alone<em>  
><em>No one hears me cry<em>

Santana was furious. How could she have let her walls down so much that Rachel could see straight through her? If the rest of the school found out about her, oh god she can't even think about it. No one wants a girl who has to starve herself to stay thin, these days it's all about natural beauty yada, yada, being yourself. Which is just fine, until you leave the magazine ideal of a perfect girl, which Santana was. There was nothing wrong with looking like the magazines, even if you had to sacrifice some things right? Santana glared as she noticed Quinn looking at her. How could Rachel sing something like this in front of everyone?

_I need you to know  
>I'm not through the night<br>Some days I'm still fighting to walk towards the light  
>I need you to know<br>That we'll be okay  
>Together we can make it through another day<em>

_I don't know the first time I felt unbeautiful_  
><em>The day I chose not to eat<em>  
><em>What I do know is how I changed my life forever<em>  
><em>I know I should know better<em>  
><em>There are days when I'm okay<em>  
><em>And for a moment<em>  
><em>For a moment I find hope<em>  
><em>But there are days when I'm not okay<em>  
><em>And I need your help<em>  
><em>So I'm letting go<em>

Santana remembered the first day she didn't eat. It was the first day of high school and a senior guy had approached her while she was sorting stuff out in her locker. He had winked at her as he asked what she was doing later that night. Still pissed after her maths class she had responded with a simple 'I'm not sleeping with you' and turned back to her locker. He had become outraged at being so blatantly turned down by a freshman he had shoved her into a locker and whispered into her ear 'You're nothing but a fat Mexican whore. You'll figure out how this works if you want to be popular. Guys like me only want girls who look sexy and will prove it to them.' Santana had cried as he walked away. She would show him. If he wanted hot and sexy he would get it, no matter what the cost.

_I need you to know  
>I'm not through the night<br>Some days I'm still fighting to walk towards the light  
>I need you to know<br>That we'll be okay  
>Together we can make it through another day<em>

That was the final straw for Santana. She stood up abruptly, her chair flying into the wall behind her. Rachel stopped as the entire club turned to face her, feeling the fury radiating from her.

"I don't need your help!" She hissed as she stormed out of the room. The remaining Glee clubbers looked around bewildered, confused as to Rachel's song choice and Santana's outburst. Only Quinn and Rachel remained calm, both expecting some sort of reaction from the song.

"I'll go." Rachel whispered, slipping out of the room unnoticed by everyone but Quinn. It didn't take her long to find Santana who was curled up in a ball on the floor of the girl's bathroom, mascara running down her cheeks.

"I'm not anorexic! I'm not!" Santana pleaded desperately, tears steadily falling down her cheeks. "I don't mean to throw up! I don't! I'm just so god damn scared!" She sobbed, her breaths now coming out in ragged gasps.

"Shhhh. Hey, shhh. It's okay, everything's going to be fine." Rachel comforted. "What are you scared of?" She prompted gently.

"I have to be perfect! No one wants a girl who isn't perfect!" The Latina wailed. "Tengo que ser perfecta!"

This outburst shocked Rachel. Sure she had expected being scared of getting fat or looking ugly, but being scared of being unwanted? No one her age should ever have to feel like that, ever.

"Santana I want you to look at me," Rachel paused waiting for Santana to meet her eyes. "Good. Now listen. You are perfect Santana, you don't have to starve yourself for that to be true."

Santana shook her head in disagreement. "Brittany didn't want me, even my own mother didn't want me until after all this happened."

"Look Santana I don't know what happened between you and Brittany, and I definitely don't know what happened between you and your mother but you have to believe me. There will be someone out there that will love you for exactly who you are, no matter what you look like. And if they don't then they are not worth one minute of your time."

"And if there's not?" Santana questioned meekly, her eyes wide as she stared at Rachel.

"There is." Rachel stated as she stood up, brushing imaginary dust of her plaid skirt. She paused as she walked out of the bathroom. "You're perfect Santana. Don't ever forget that."

**So yeah, that's it. The end. The song was Courage by Superchick, they're a pretty awesome band so check them out! Or just you know leave a review instead. Or do both. Whatever floats you boat...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Nope still don't own Glee And I haven't even seen the first episode of season 3 yet, because apparently rural Australia is not worthy of the amazingness that is Glee! So yeah, I really don't own anything.**

**AN: So I know I originally said this was a one-shot, but I am now back by popular demand! Hahahahahahaha :) So this story is now going to be a multi chapter, and I have no idea where it's going to take me but I am now on for the ride! I hope I can live up to your expectations! Enjoy! Oh and a special shout out to imalemonadeaddict for being my first ever reviewer! You rock! As do my other reviewers, I love you guys :)**

Rachel walked into Calculus, still decidedly on edge from her encounter with Santana in the bathroom that morning. All she wanted to do now was lose herself in a world of numbers where there were no blurred lines and every problem had an answer. She had just pulled out a textbook and was working on the assigned problems when a commotion from the front of the room gained her attention.

"You're late Miss Lopez." Their teacher, Mr Andrews, scolded the girl.

"Whatever." The Latina shrugged as she moved to go sit down, ignoring the questioning glances being sent her way.

"And where are you books?" Mr Andrews demanded, frowning down on Santana.

"I forgot them okay! It happens!" She snapped, fury emanating from her voice as well as a hint of what Rachel detected to be desperation. Rachel watched as their teachers face went a deep shade of red, a sure sign he was about to lose it.

Rachel decided that now might be a good time to intervene. "It's okay, she can share mine." She stood up, gesturing to the empty seat beside her. The Latina glared at her, but reluctantly moved to take the seat. They worked in silence, the sound of their pens scribbling across the page the only noise. Rachel let out a frustrated sigh as she got the answer to question four wrong again. She sneaked a glance towards Santana's page, noticing that the girl was working on number twelve, the last one to be completed on the page. Rachel had forgotten how good the girl actually was at maths. She had always suspected that the girl was smart, you needed high intelligence to come back with witty remarks as quickly as she could, but watching her as she worked confirmed that suspicion. A sudden hiss brought her back to reality.

"What are you staring at midget?" Santana was scowling at her, waiting expectantly for an answer.

"Umm...could you maybe help me with number four?" Rachel asked, her eyes wide. Santana leaned over, her eyes scanning the page.

"Here," she said pointing to a spot on the page "You already have the derivative of the function, so instead of differentiating it you have to integrate it." Rachel stared at her blankly, prompting her to continue. Santana sighed "You add one to the power and then divide through with the new power and add the constant."

"Thanks." Rachel smiled as she finally got the question right. Maybe she should have Santana sit with her in calculus more often, she made it look so easy. She sighed as the bell rung signalling lunch, she would have to finish the questions for homework. On an impulsive decision she reached out, grabbing Santana by the wrist, frowning at how easily her hand circled it.

"Sit at the Glee table for lunch today." Rachel offered, sending Santana an encouraging smile.

Santana snorted. "Look man-hands I know you think we're friends or whatever now but get it through your tiny skull, I do not need your help. What happened in the bathroom was a moment of weakness brought on by the crazy hormones that occur at that time of the month. I am fine."

"Just consider it." Rachel replied as she walked out of the room, noticing Santana roll her eyes. Rachel sighed as she caught Santana walking in the opposite direction. It was worth a try right? She grabbed a red tray from the cafeteria line, placing a peanut butter sandwich and a small yoghurt next to her bottle of juice before taking a seat next to Mercedes.

Santana leaned against her locker, letting her forehead rest on the gleaming metal. The emotional toll of the day was creeping up on her, it was getting harder and harder to act composed around the annoying and freakishly short brunette. It seemed like everywhere she went that midget followed her. And now she wanted to have lunch with her? Yeah right, like that was going to happen. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, she couldn't seem to shake her headache. And on top of all that she was starting to feel nauseous too, she wished the day could be over all ready so she could go home and sleep. Or at least attempt to sleep, ever since her Mami had gotten off the drugs she was a hell of a lot less willing to leave Santana to her own devices. She was startled out of her thoughts by the sound of an approaching voice.

"Hey. Are you okay?" A concerned Brittany asked, her smile turning to a slight frown as she took in the state of Santana.

"I'm fine Britt-Britt, just not feeling very well at the moment." Santana responded, forcing a smile onto her face. "C'mon lets go to lunch."

"Okay. Do you mind if we sit at the Glee table today? Me and Mike were practising our dance and he asked me. I like sitting at the Glee table! Everyone is so happy and they talk to me and Kurt even gave me half of his cookie once! Please San?" Santana groaned internally. Of course Brittany would want to sit at the same table as her brand new personal midget stalker. And there was no way she could say no to Brittany, it was like against the law or something. She sighed.

"Sure Britt, let's go."

The two walked into the lunchroom together, joining the line for food. Brittany grabbed a plate and piled a heap of pasta in the middle, adding a few cookies around the outside for her dessert. Santana simply held onto her thermos of Sue's master cleanse, ignoring the food options around her. Mutually they walked towards the Glee club, sliding into seats at the end of the table. Santana laid her head on Brittany's shoulder, allowing her eyes to drift closed as she listened to the surrounding conversations.

"What's wrong with her?" Quinn asked, nodding her head towards Santana.

"She said she wasn't feeling good." Brittany replied absently, busy looking down worriedly at the Latina. "I don't know what to do to make her feel better." She pouted, looking up for suggestions.

"Normally when she feels sick she likes to drink excessive hot chocolate and will only eat apples." Puck spoke up, earning some suspicious looks from around the table. "What? I've known her since we were in diapers, I know what she's like when she's sick! 'Sides, I treat my women right!"

"Okay, but apples?" Mercedes asked questioningly.

"They taste good." Santana mumbled, not bothering to open her eyes or lift her head. Puck was right though, apples were the only thing she liked to eat when she wasn't feeling well, and the crisp sweetness of the apple seemed to go perfectly with hot chocolate, almost instantly making her feel better. Gosh how long had it been since she had hot chocolate? She missed the steaming cup of chocolaty goodness, but there was no way she was going to put that liquid sugar into her body now. She swore just thinking about it made her gain a pound, which was simply not acceptable anymore. She reached out blindly to grasp her master cleanse, taking a long sip of the weight loss drink.

"See! I bet that's hot chocolate in her thermos now! Right San?" Puck stated proudly. Santana said nothing, simply cradling her drink to her chest. Rachel frowned, maybe she had been wrong about her suspicions and the girl was simply just sick and emotional. A loud rumble broke her out of her thoughts and she glanced around to notice Santana biting her lip sheepishly.

"Girl you gotta eat!" Mercedes exclaimed whilst eyeing the Latina. "Here, you can have my apple. Gotta keep your strength up when you're sick!" Santana opened one eye and shook her head, denying the snack being offered. Mercedes simply raised her eyebrow at the girl until she relented and accepted the fruit. She slowly started to eat the apple, chewing each bite carefully and deliberately as her friends watched her. She could feel that familiar sensation of guilt rising up in her stomach at eating the food as she debated internally. _It's just an apple, apples are healthy. And loaded with sugar. Natural sugars are good for you. So are vitamins and they have no calories. _

Santana closed her eyes, willing the feeling to go away. It was twisting inside her stomach, making her feel physically ill and she couldn't stop it. She clamped a hand to her mouth as she felt the bile rise up her throat, winning the battle. In one swift movement she was out of her chair and running across the cafeteria towards the bathrooms.

"I guess she really wasn't feeling well." Sam said as he watched Santana run across the cafeteria and disappear into the bathroom doors, her red skirt flipping up behind her.

"Maybe she's pregnant?" Tina asked.

"Yeah, it was only a matter of time." Kurt added. The rest of the Glee members nodded in agreement, except for a select few. They all knew Santana slept around a lot so the possibility was definitely feasible.

"She's not pregnant." Brittany said in a quiet voice. This time it was Puck, Quinn and Rachel who nodded their agreement.

"She'd kill herself before she let herself get pregnant as a teenager." Quinn said, pursing her lips.

Mercedes scoffed. "Does her reputation really mean that much to her?"

"Yes, but that's not the reason." Puck spoke up.

"Well what is?" Kurt demanded, glancing between the three who were closest to the girl. They seemed to have a silent conversation with their eyes before Puck spoke up.

"Santana's nearly seventeen; her mom's just turned thirty-three. You do the maths. She had a pretty crappy childhood, she's not going to force it on someone else."

Quinn gave a bitter laugh. "Why do you think she was so mad at me last year? She lost it when I told her that I was thinking about keeping Beth, she's only just started talking to me again."

Rachel's brain was whirling as she took in the information that had been offered. She had no idea about Santana's life, always assuming that she was simply a spoilt brat. She knew that the girl couldn't have been pregnant, she was pretty certain the Latina's problem had less to do about getting fat and more to do with getting skinny. Rachel was just relieved that no-one had picked up on the fact she knew the girl wasn't pregnant but had no idea about her past. The rest of the group fell into silence as they noticed Santana approaching. She slid into her seat, her face noticeably paler than it was before, before laying her head down on her arms.

"What are you looking at?" She snapped, her voice slightly muffled as it came through her arms. The group immediately resumed their light chatter to appease the girl. She might be sick, but she was still the HBIC and frankly quite scary, even if she was slightly nicer to her fellow glee clubbers. The topic changed to the subjects they had after lunch. Mike, Tina and Artie had geography, Mercedes and Kurt had fashion design, Puck, Sam, Finn, Lauren and Quinn all had U.S. history and Brittany had art.

"What do you have next Santana?" Sam asked curiously.

"None of your bees wax Trouty." She shot back, sitting up to glare at him. He raised his hands in silent surrender, eyes wide. She finally relented with a roll of her eyes. "Literature."

"Hey, same as Rachel!" Finn exclaimed, grinning widely until Santana shot him a death stare.

Artie wrinkled his nose. "I didn't know you read books." He said, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Santana loves to read! Her favourite's Little Women, she reads it all the time." Brittany announced, rifling through a bag at her feet. She pulled out a tattered copy of the book. The cover was faded, most of the pages had been dog tagged and the spine of the book was held together with sticky tape. "See!"

"Brittany!" Santana hissed and grabbed the book back, shoving it into the bag at her feet as a slight rush of heat covered her cheeks. Lucky the bell rang before anyone could question her further. The group scattered, each going to their final classes of the day. Santana walked in silence to her Literature class, trying to ignore Rachel who was walking with her, taking a quick detour to her locker to get her books. They walked into class, Rachel taking her usual seat up the front and Santana walking past her to sit at the back. Their teacher walked in, clapping her hands to gain the attention of the class.

"Okay guys today we are going to start by doing a little writing exercise. I want you to take out your pens and paper and write me a paragraph on absolutely anything. It can be about your pet cat if you really want it to. Now this is to benefit yourselves only, so don't be afraid to write down what you feel, you can keep it anonymous if you want. Like I said, this is purely to improve your personal writing skills nothing else. Once you've done that hand it in to my desk and start reading chapter five of Pride and Prejudice."

Santana sighed heavily, she was not in the mood to do another one of her teacher's stupid writing exercises. She grabbed out her favourite pen and started writing on her notebook. After filling up half the page she ripped the paper out and walked to the front of the room, dropping the folded half on Mrs Higgins' desk. The teacher looked up and gave Santana a small smile, a hint of concern passing through her eyes as she noticed the girl's pale figure. Mrs Higgins was like Mr Schue in the way that she cared about her students. Well some of her students, and Santana had worked her way into that group. Unlike Mr Schue she rarely chased up what was bothering the student, choosing to offer them silent support in the form of smiles and ignoring forgotten homework or rude remarks.

A shaggy haired kid in the second row put his hand up. "Miss did you finish marking our essays?"

"Ah yes, I'd forgotten about them." Mrs Higgins stated as she grabbed a pile of papers and started distributing them around the room. Rachel smiled when she saw the red mark at the top of her page. Ninety-three percent was definitely an A and she felt she deserved it after the hard work she put into that essay. Mrs Higgins raised her eyebrow as she handed back Santana her essay, she had known for a fact that the Latina had only read the book three days before the essay was due. Santana shook her head slightly at the unspoken question, the same answer she gave after every assignment.

"The top mark for this assignment was ninety-eight percent and this was achieved by a student who wishes to remain anonymous. It would seem that some of you need to work a little, or a lot, harder to beat them."

Rachel's good mood deflated slightly, there was always one student who beat her every time and guessing by the fact they remained anonymous every week it was the same person. Oh well, her mark was still higher than the rest of her mentally challenged peers. Santana bit her lip as she hurriedly placed her essay in her file, away from prying eyes. That was not a mark she wanted other people to see. She opened her copy of the famous book and tried to look busy for the rest of the class, hoping to avoid suspicion. She had just gotten lost in a world away from her own when the bell rang, startling her and causing her to jump in her seat.

Their teacher spoke over the noise of excited students trying to leave school for the day. "Santana, can I see you for a moment?"

Rachel frowned at this, she had been hoping to ask a question on their new task, but it looked like she was going to have to wait. She watched as Santana walked carefully to the front of the room, her book bag slung over one shoulder.

"Yes?" she questioned. "I know this isn't about my assignment so what's wrong?"

"No, top of the class again Santana, well done. I was wondering if I could speak to you about what you wrote today?" Rachel's jaw dropped at this. Santana had been the one beating her all year? So she was not only better at calculus she was better at literature as well. Rachel mentally checked the other classes she had with the girl – chemistry and physics. Surely she wasn't beating her in those as well?

"What do you mean what I wrote, I didn't put my name on it!" Santana said, sounding a little panicked.

"You're the only one in this class who writes with a purple pen." Mrs Higgins stated. "Now, do you mind..." she trailed off, looking at Santana for confirmation. The girl said nothing, just narrowing her eyes which the teacher meant was a sign for go ahead. She grabbed the piece of paper and started to read the words the girl had wrote.

"_Do you believe in fairytales? The idea that a perfect guy, your very own prince charming, will just come and sweep you off your feet and you can live happily ever after? Here is an example of my fairytale. Once upon a time there was a beautiful young girl who had a baby princess while studying to graduate school. The baby's father was a handsome prince charming who had to leave the palace before the beautiful girl found out his name. The beautiful girl was so upset by this she started taking magic pills and drinking magic potions to make her feel better. These potions made her so happy that she couldn't stop taking them, which meant she had to leave her baby princess on her own all of the time. This made the baby princess sad at first, but she found another young princess and they became best friends. As these princesses got older they started talking about which prince charming they were going to give their special present too. These presents were very special as a princess could only give it to a prince once in her life. The princess didn't want to tell her friend that a prince her mother had invited home had already taken her present away when she was seven. The princess pretended that she gave her present to a different prince charming instead. The prince didn't mind because the princess had grown quite beautiful by then and that had made her one of the best princesses in the kingdom, even the grumpy witch thought she was okay and let her join her team of best princesses. Although the grumpy witch did think her fairy godmother had helped her become beautiful, she didn't believe that the princess had just bought some better bras, but that didn't matter. Then the princess started to worry that she wasn't thin enough and that no prince charming would ever want her and this made her feel very sick. But that's okay because like in every fairytale a prince will come along and save her and they will live happily ever after. And that would be the end. There's just one problem- I'm not a princess and this isn't a fairytale, this is reality. Life has no happy endings. And I think it's time I accepted that."_

"That's not your usual style Santana." She said gently, watching the Latina's face for any form of emotion. The girl's face betrayed nothing, a hard look set on her face.

"Whatever, can I go now? I have Cheerios." The teacher nodded, watching as the girl walked off. Rachel decided this was her cue to leave, she would come back and ask later. She slipped out unnoticed, feeling like she had just witnessed a very private part of Santana's life. She decided to head to the auditorium and sing out her confusion; Mr Schue worked late on Mondays so she knew it would still be unlocked.

Several hours later and feeling refreshed and vigorous from her vocal work out Rachel headed out to the carpark. She glanced at her phone to check the time when she realised it had started getting dark outside. A movement next to a small red car Rachel recognised as Brittany's caught her eye. She knew the blonde had been picked up earlier that day for a dentist appointment so she wondered why her car was still in the lot. A light dawned in her head as she remembered Quinn mentioning that she drove the Latina to school today and she reasoned that Brittany must have left her car for Santana to drive home after the late practice instead of walking in the dark. Rachel didn't know why but Santana often drove Brittany's car around rather than her own.

Rachel squinted making out a shape that was definitely Santana placing a bag in the boot. She watched as the girl moved to the driver's side, seemingly leaning against the car for support. She watched as the girl brought a hand to her stomach and then to her head as she stumbled a little. Rachel's breath hitched as she watched Santana slump down to the floor, landing in an ungraceful heap.

**So what do you think? Still worth continuing, or have I lost my writers touch? If it is worthy I will try and update within the next week :) Actually you are pretty lucky I updated at all this week, had the dreaded maths exam 2 days ago, hence the cool mathematical talk at the start of the chapter. If it's any consolation (which it totally isn't to me) next week is physics exam so you may get some cool physics talk. It's also graduation next week which my year gets to help plan (small school, only about forty-fifty kids in my year – it's pretty cool actually when you can name every person in your year and the year above you – so graduation is a huge deal!) which means after next Friday my year rule the school! Get to be a senior at the same time as the Glee kids! Woohoo! And after that is spring break (two whole weeks!) so you can expect updates then! If you still want me to continue that is... Anyway, cya later alligators :D **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Trust me, if I owned Glee season 3 would be going a lot more differently for one Santana Lopez. Who I don't own. At all. Got it?**

**So sorry about the wait guys, I hope none of you have fallen off the planet in the last week and a half, and if you have I apologise sincerely for you never getting to read this. Actually most people probably don't ever read this so you're not really missing out on much. In fact I could probably say whatever I want here because no one wants to read it anyway. And if you are reading this you have probably realised that it is rather pointless and has nothing to do with the story at all, but because you are reading this I guess I will give you some story info. Only because you have total dedication and I love you. Season 3 has not happened. Will is not a stupid, ignorant, horrible jerk and actually likes Santana to some degree and would never ever consider kicking her out. So yeah, are we on the same page? I hope so! Enjoy!**

"Santana! Somebody help!" Rachel screamed as she ran over to wear Santana had fallen. She panicked internally when she noticed the girl's eyes were shut and she wasn't moving. "Oh my gosh, what if she's dead?" She wondered aloud as she moved closer to inspect the girl. She looked up as she heard footsteps running towards her and relief filled her for half a second as she noticed Mr Schue running towards them. Mr Schue was an adult, he would know what to do, wouldn't he? Her attention snapped back to Santana when she noticed her stirring a little.

"Geez Berry, stop being such a drama queen. I can assure you I'm not dead." Rachel frowned at this statement, she could have sworn Santana was out cold at that point in the one-way conversation. She glanced accusingly at the Latina who was looking at her through one eye, the other remaining tightly shut, but her gaze was broken by another voice.

"What's going on? Santana, are you okay?" Mr Schue asked frantically as he arrived at the car, panting a little, causing Santana to fully open her eyes at the intrusion.

"Just peachy." Santana lied, closing her eyes again. Truth was she had been so dizzy that she had fallen in a heap, and closing her eyes seemed the best way to get rid of her severe case of vertigo.

"Right...so why are you on the floor of the parking lot?" Mr Schue asked, a little confused by the girl's behaviour.

"Tired." Was Santana's simple and admittedly pathetic reply.

"She said she wasn't feeling well earlier, and she threw up at lunch. I was getting ready to go home after my vocal session, and I'm guessing Santana had just finished Cheerios practice, when I saw her just collapse." Rachel said by way of explanation. Mr Schuester shot a worried look towards the girl before turning back to ask Rachel a question

"Did she-" He stopped halfway through as he noticed Rachel's attention had been diverted. The stubborn Latina had managed to stand up and was in the middle of opening the driver's side door of the car, keys in hand, attempting to drive herself home.

"I don't think it is a good idea for you to be driving in your condition." Rachel stated with wide eyes, looking from the girl to the car.

"Yeah? Well no one asked for your opinion Berry!" Santana spat, shooting Rachel a look as she continued getting in the car.

"I'm going to have to agree with Rachel on this. I can not allow you to drive home like this Santana." Mr Schue said, deciding that it was probably time to intervene. He had seen the Hispanic girl's temper flare up on many occasions and it was something he would like to try to avoid at this point in time. Santana sighed at this. She felt sick, hungry and tired and all she wanted to do was get home and go to sleep in her nice warm bed as soon as possible, but these interfering idiots were making it damn near impossible. Sure she had just fallen, but the dizziness was slightly better and it wasn't like her house was that far to drive to, besides Puck drove while he was drunk all the time and he was still fine, this wasn't that much different.

"Right. So what am I supposed to do, walk home?" Santana replied with a roll of her eyes, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Bad idea, rolling her eyes just made the dizziness return with full force and she had to reach her arm out to steady herself against the car.

"Don't be silly Santana, I'll gladly take you home." Rachel said cheerfully, flashing her beaming smile.

"I'd rather walk." Santana said shortly, narrowing her eyes at the girl. There was no way she was letting the midget near her house, not with the creepy stalker tendencies she had been displaying recently. Rachel's face fell at this admittance. She had been hoping that she could have another little heart to heart with the girl, and it wasn't like she could run away while buckled into the car.

"I'll drive you. You live on Aston Close right? My house isn't far from there, it's on the way actually." Mr Schue commented, sensing the tension in the air and trying to break it. And there was no way he was letting a sick student of his walk home while it was dark, so he grabbed Santana's bag off her shoulder and motioned towards his car. He watched as Santana's shoulders slumped with resignation and she shuffled over towards his car, putting a majority of her weight on the surrounding cars. She opened the passenger door and climbed in, which Mr Schue took as his cue to leave.

"Bye Rachel." He called with a final wave as he too climbed in the car, the sound of the engine starting a few moments later. He looked over towards his passenger who was staring out the front window, noticing that her eyes were narrowed and her hands were crossed defensively across her chest. Deciding it was best not to start up a conversation with her the pair drove in silence, watching the scenery fly past.

Santana groaned internally. There is nothing more awkward than being alone in a car with one of your teachers; it's just weird and uncomfortable. Stupid Berry and her stupid stupidness, this was all her stupid fault. Santana furrowed her eyebrows, maybe she was sicker than she thought if her thinking had been reduced to a puddle of stupidness. Actually maybe she should just stop thinking altogether, it was making her head hurt and everything was spinning worse than it was before. She shut her eyes, promising herself it was just for a moment, and leaned against the window revelling in the feeling of the cool glass on her forehead.

Will glanced around at the houses as he looked for number thirty seven, after an interesting conversation with Brittany about why he didn't get an invitation for her sleepover he was not going to be forgetting that anytime soon. Apparently the blonde threw a sleepover every year for people at school that lived in a house with a thirty seven on the letterbox, but every year it was only Santana that got invited and that had to mean they were 'the bestest of best friends because only the best of all the best friends share the same letterbox number'. He sighed, his brain did not need to go through that conversation again, once was bad enough. He finally spotted the cream house with its manicured lawn and white picket fence. It wasn't the rough area Santana liked to make it out to be, the bad things that happened here were much more on a par with the dramas from Desperate Housewives rather than some gang war. He pulled into the drive and turned off the engine, smiling to himself when he noticed that Santana had fallen asleep. He reached over and gently shook her shoulder, smiling in sympathy as he noticed her look around in confusion before the mask was back in place.

"Thanks for the ride." Santana muttered as she pulled her bag over her shoulder and climbed out of the car, stumbling slightly as she moved to walk away.

Mr Schue frowned at the little stumble in her step. "I'll walk you to the door." He said, worried that she might not be able to make it. Santana scowled but didn't say anything as he stepped out of the car and followed her up the drive. Santana stopped as they reached the door and unzipped her bag, rummaging around for what Will guessed to be her house keys. He watched as her movements became more frantic before she dumped everything on the porch. Chemistry and physics text books landed with a thud and her pencil case split open, causing several pens to start rolling away. A hairbrush, lip gloss, water bottle and wallet all fell out as well but there was a significant lack of keys in the pile on the floor.

Santana cursed under her breath. This was just perfect, all she had wanted to do was slip in unnoticed and curl up under the covers in her nice warm bed and just sleep for the next five years, but no she had to be an idiot and forget her damn keys. She collected all her things and crammed them haphazardly back into the bag, standing back up straight from her crouched position on the floor before knocking on the large wooden door.

"Mami?" She yelled as her knuckles rapped on the timber.

"Santana is that you?" A voice called out from within before a loud moan could be heard followed by a short, breathy "Yes, just like that." Will's brows furrowed in disgust but Santana simply rolled her eyes as if she were used to it. The voice soon spoke up again.

"You remember Daniel don't you? We met him at the supermarket last week? Well we're going to be a little busy tonight, why don't you stay at that blonde's house, what was her name, Bethany? Have a nice night." It called dismissively.

A deep husky voice joined in suggestively, obviously not talking to the duo outside the door. "Oh you will!" Before a series of giggles arose from inside, followed by several moans that seemed to retreat away from the door. Will watched in concern as Santana slumped to the floor, rubbing at her eyes tiredly. What sort of mother could blatantly have sex while talking to her daughter? And better yet, what sort of mother could lock her sick child out of the house while it was dark? And the worst thing was that Santana didn't seem surprised by it, it made Will wonder just how many times this had happened.

"Did you want me to drive you to Brittany's? I'm guessing that was the blonde your mom was talking about?" Will asked gently, eliciting a humourless laugh from Santana.

"You'd think she might have remembered the name after eleven years." She muttered dryly before turning back to answer Will's original question, "She won't be home, her family are going out to celebrate Britt not having a cavity this month."

"Is there anywhere else you want to go? I'll drive you there."

"Nah, don't worry Mr Schue, I'll just sleep in the car." Santana said, gesturing to a small silver sedan parked next to the house. She let out a scoff, "Besides, I don't exactly have any other friends to stay with except Puck and Q and both of their mom's hate me." She gave him a tight smile before walking off towards the car.

That was when Will made his decision. "Wait, Santana, I'm not going to let you stay out here when you're sick. You can come back to my house for the night. I can't offer much but I'm sure a couch would be somewhat comfier than a car."

Santana weighed up her options. If the car ride with her teacher had been awkward surely staying at his house would be even worse, but on the other hand she really did just want to curl up somewhere and the car really was not the most comfy place to sleep, her neck always ached for days afterwards. She let out a long breath before nodding her head and walking back to Mr Schue's car.

Later that night Will was grading papers in the dim light of his kitchen and Santana was fast asleep, curled into a little ball under the blankets on the couch and was sucking lightly on her thumb. It was amazing how different the girl looked when she was asleep, she seemed smaller and more fragile, not at all like the confident girl who walked through the school hallways. This thought made Will smile a little, he had never had much interaction with Santana and seeing this more vulnerable side of her made him feel closer to the girl. He focused all of his attention onto the girl as he noticed her brow furrow and a small whimper escape from her lips. Now what was he supposed to do? Wake her up? But she was a teenager, what if it was just one of **those** dreams? He made up his mind when a pained whisper, "Never good enough" came from her mouth and she clutched the blanket tighter. He stood up from his chair at the kitchen table and walked over to the distressed girl, hovering above her for a few moments.

"Santana." He called softly, gently shaking her shoulder at the same time. After gaining no response he called her name again, slightly louder this time.

Santana awoke with a start, breathing quickly. She looked around for what had wakened her up, wondering in confusion why Mr Schue was standing there. She clenched her eyes shut as the dream came flooding back to her, it had been more of a sequence of memories really and that had just made it so much worse.

_Brittany rejecting her at the lockers in the school hallway. Sue demoting her to the bottom of the pyramid. Puck choosing that stupid whale over her. Her Mami telling her to stop eating so much junk, she was starting to look bloated. Finn telling her that she meant nothing, that she was a mistake. The jiggle of her thigh the night of Puck's party. Rachel singing that stupid song in front of everyone. Her own Mami locking her out the first time. Her Mami locking her out tonight. The chocolate Mr Schue had made her eat before she fell asleep._

The chocolate. Santana had almost forgotten about that, she had been so eager to go to sleep she had just accepted the bar so he would leave her alone, except he wouldn't leave until she ate it. So she did it. She ate the chocolate. How could she have done that? She clamped a hand over her mouth as the guilt made itself known again and she sat up before clambering off the couch and bolting to the bathroom. She tensed when she felt a hand pulling her hair away from her face as her stomach expelled all traces of the chocolate.

"It's alright, just get it out." Mr Schue murmured. He had followed Santana after she had run out of the living room, finding her heaving into the toilet whilst struggling to keep her hair out of the way of the vomit. Immediately he had gone in to help, offering small words of comfort while he held her hair and waited for her to finish.

"You done?" He asked gently once the Latina had stopped retching into the toilet.

"I-I think so." She answered shakily, slowly climbing to her feet. She swayed on the spot for a few moments before walking out of the bathroom and into the kitchen, taking a seat on one of the chairs. She couldn't stop herself as a shiver ran through her body, she was still in her Cheerio's uniform and it was decidedly colder when you weren't under a blanket.

"I think I have some of Terri's old stuff if you want to change into something warmer?" Will asked when he noticed her shivering, mentally kicking himself for not offering as soon as they got here. When the girl nodded he disappeared into the bedroom, emerging a few moments later with a pair of purple striped pyjama pants and a grey sweatshirt. Santana took the offered items of clothing and headed towards the bathroom to change. Will frowned a little when she reappeared wearing the clothes, they seemed to swallow the girl's tiny frame. He had deliberately picked the clothes that were a little small on Terri and Santana wasn't that much shorter than her, there was no way the clothes should have been as big as they were.

Santana sat back down at the table again, considerably warmer in the pyjamas than she had been in her uniform. She reached down and pulled her phone from her bag that had been leaning against the wall. 15 missed texts and 4 missed calls. She decided to check who the calls were from first.

_Berry, 6:48pm_

_Britt-Britt, 7:05pm_

_Quinn, 7:14pm_

_Berry, 7:23pm_

Why was Berry calling her? And why was Berry calling her twice? Santana thought she had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with the midget. She wrinkled her nose, moving on to check her texts.

_Berry – Did you get home okay?_

_Britt-Britt – Ges wat? I hv no teethe howels! _Santana had to laugh a little at this, Brittany could always cheer her up even if her spelling wasn't the greatest.

_Quinn – You okay? You seemed a little off at school?_

_Berry- Santana did you make it home?_

_Sam- Feeling any better?_

_Kurt- Hope you're feeling better Satan xo_

_Berry- You haven't passed out again have you?_

_Britt-Britt- Wnt me 2 sav u sum bredstixs Sanny?_

_Quinn- Sue said we have practise at 6am 2moro, you going to be okay or should I tell her you're sick?_

_Berry- Are you dead?_

_Puck- Hey, you busy ;)_

_Berry- Santana I'm getting worried!_

_Berry- Santana?_

_Berry- Santana! I'm really worried now! Answer your phone!_

_Berry- Just tell me if you're okay._

Seriously what was wrong with Berry? Santana rolled her eyes, that girl could never give up. What made her think that after no reply from the first three texts she would get a reply out of the next five? She typed out a reply to the girl, saying that she was fine and had fallen asleep. She glanced over the other texts, telling Quinn that practise would be fine and Brittany that she was proud of her, declining her offer for bread sticks. Deciding that the others could wait she put her phone back in her bag, wincing when she heard her stomach grumble.

Will glanced up from the papers he had returned to when he heard a quiet rumble. Judging by the sheepish look on her face it was definitely Santana's stomach that rumbled, he didn't blame her for being hungry, she had fallen asleep before dinner and would have vomited any other food out of her system.

"I can heat up some soup if you want some?" Will asked pointedly, glancing at Santana's stomach.

Santana bit her lip, she hadn't eaten for a while and soup was healthy and low in calories, she could handle that. Besides she had to eat something soon or else she would turn into a skeleton which was no better than being fat, she needed to keep that balance of smoking hot. She nodded her head in response, offering a small smile as well. She watched as her teacher grabbed a can out of the pantry and emptied its contents into a bowl before placing it in the microwave. After a minute the microwave beeped and Mr Schue placed the steaming liquid in front of her as well as a silver spoon.

"Tomato." He explained as he placed the soup down. "Did you need anything to drink?" Santana shook her head, pointing to the water bottle she had pulled from her bag. She delicately raised the spoon up to her mouth, blowing on it slightly before swallowing the liquid. She managed to eat half the bowl before she yawned widely, blushing slightly in embarrassment.

"Sorry. I think I might go back to sleep, if that's okay?" She said, pushing the bowl away from her.

"Its fine, you need your rest to get better. Goodnight." He called as she stood up, smiling warmly at the girl. He watched as she got settled on the couch, burrowing under the blankets. She closed her eyes and Will listened as her breathing evened out, Santana falling asleep within minutes with her warm, full belly. Will smiled to himself as he looked at the clock above the stove. 8:30. Who would have thought that the popular party girl would be fast asleep by then? His smile faded as he remembered what had been bothering him all evening, what he wanted to talk to her about. That little outburst she had in Glee during Rachel's song. The song that was clearly about an eating disorder, that much was obvious. But she ate the soup which must mean she was fine. Wasn't she?

**So there you go, another chapter which I'll admit is not very action packed, it's more like a back story filler and a forward story mover. Kinda. Sorta. Whatever, anyway you've read it, you know what it is! It's also later than I promised, but hey it's still a chapter! And I promise in the next chapter there will be more Santana/ Rachel interaction and less Mr Schue and maybe even some Santana/Quinn-ness as well. Anyway, I'm gonna act like a tree and leave, so cya :) **


	4. Chapter 4

**Well here we are, another chapter for my awesome readers. I'd just like to say that this chapter is dedicated to imalemonaddict for always being able to make me smile with a review, you rock! Hope you all enjoy this!**

Santana's alarm on her phone rang out into the darkness at 5:30 the next morning. She groaned, quickly reaching her hand down to get her phone off the floor before the alarm woke Mr Schue. It was times like this that she really wondered why she put her body through the torture that her coach called practise. If it was still dark you should be asleep, it was a simple as that. Santana sat up, stretching her arms lightly above her head, listening to the popping sound that came from them. Mr Schue's couch might have been an upgrade from the car, but it still wasn't the most comfortable places to sleep.

She gingerly swung her legs out from under the blanket, goosebumps rising on her flesh as her bare foot came in contact with the wood floor. Walking across the room she grabbed her cheerleading uniform from the day before off the back of a kitchen chair, it would have to do until she got to school where a clean one was safe inside her locker. She pulled the clothes Mr Schue had lent her off her head, subconsciously looking for any fat on her exposed stomach before slipping her uniform on. She grabbed her pristine sneakers from under the table and proceeded to pull the laces tight around her feet in an effort to warm them up. Now that she was fully dressed she stood up and walked back over to the couch where she neatly folded the blankets and left them in a pile at the end, with the clothes on top. With one final glance around the room she quietly opened the door, stepping out into the cold dark morning.

Her breath puffed out in front of her a she started the walk towards the school. She glanced at her watch, 5:50, that left her with 20 minutes to get to school, 10 to get dressed, do her pony tail and apply makeup and 10 to do her warm up before practise started at 6:30. She picked up her pace, if she was late Sue would make her run laps for the hour long practise, something she had learned from experience. She frowned a little as she thought about the nice warm coffee she would have had with her if she left from her own house, she was pretty sure coffee was the only thing that made her survive these crazy morning practises. She let out a sigh of relief as she saw the familiar school building up ahead, she was right on schedule.

Santana spun her combination into her locker inside the Cheerios locker room. Being a Cheerio meant you had two lockers, one for normal school and one for Cheerios. She pulled out her clean uniform and started to get changed.

"Why are you getting changed?" Another Cheerio, a girl named Ella, asked Santana.

"This is my one from yesterday, I need to put a clean one on." Santana explained, gesturing to the uniform that was half off.

"You stayed out all night?" Quinn asked, having just walked into the room as she fastened her ponytail.

"No I just didn't go home, if you know what I mean." Santana said suggestively with a smirk, causing the girls in the room to giggle. Quinn just raised an eyebrow, Santana often used sex as a way to deflect from the real issue, it raised her reputation and got everyone to stop asking anymore questions. Santana continued to get changed, she would have to tell Puck later that she slept at his house last night, well as far as the rest of the school was concerned. The duo often used each other as cover up stories, both had far from perfect home lives so it was the perfect excuse to hide any unwanted secrets.

"Trouble at home?" Quinn whispered as she walked past the Latina who was now applying her make up in one of the many mirrors that lined the room.

"Something like that." Santana replied softly with a roll of her eyes. She recapped her lip gloss and placed it back into her locker before gathering her hair and tying it with a red hair elastic, checking it was perfect in the mirror before turning around. She then walked out of the room, leaving Quinn to wonder what had happened the night before.

It was halfway through practise when the remark came. Everyone had been paired off to practise lifts and Santana and Quinn were placed together. Quinn was lifting Santana when the words had slipped out of her lips.

"Geez San, why do you have to be so heavy?" She said with a laugh, hoping to add some light heartedness to the gruelling practise. She had been completely unprepared for the other girl's reaction. Santana had immediately stiffened at the words and suddenly inhaled in a sharp breath, her mouth forming a thin line. But the strangest thing was Quinn could have sworn she saw her eyes glisten with unshed tears, however before she could say anything they were interrupted.

"Sandbags! If there is not a smile as wide as the Mississippi River on your face the next time I turn around you can stay behind after practise and run another 18 laps around the track!" Sue barked through her megaphone, glaring at Santana. Santana immediately plastered a bright smile on her face, although anyone looking closely could see that it was forced. Quinn took a mental note to ask Santana about what had happened later. Finally once practise had finished Santana and Quinn walked back to the locker room and quickly showered, seeing Brittany already dressed, showered and waiting for them.

"How did you get ready so fast Britt?" Santana asked as she washed her hair, her voice rising out of the cubicle with the steam.

"I did my cool down stretches in the shower." Brittany replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Santana and Quinn exchanged a look as they both stepped out of the showers in fluffy red towels, Santana secretly loving everything Brittany had to say. Once they were all ready they set off towards the choir room for their before school Glee meeting.

As they entered the room the rest of the club was already gossiping amongst themselves, and the three girls went to go find seats. Quinn sat down between Tina and Finn and Brittany sat down on the other side, next to Mike where the two immediately started talking about some new dance move. Santana groaned internally when she realised that the only available seat left was on the end next to Rachel. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before sitting down next to the girl.

"Hello Santana!" Rachel said brightly as the girl sat down.

"Hobbit." Santana said coldly in acknowledgement. She had been hoping that the stupid dwarf could just sit down and be quite for half an hour, she should have known that quiet was not a word in the girls vocabulary.

Rachel dug around in her backpack before pulling out the item she was looking for. "Here, I got this for you. Brittany said it was your favourite." She said whilst holding up a Snickers Bar. Santana's mouth watered at the sight of the candy bar, there was nothing better than chocolate, caramel and peanuts all mixed together and the nougat was just the cherry on top. Snickers were the best food on the entire planet, there was no doubt about it.

"No thanks." Santana replied, trying to be disinterested in the offered candy bar. Her taste buds were practically screaming at her to take the candy, but she remembered what Quinn had said that morning so there was no way she was going to eat that. Rachel frowned whilst giving Santana a knowing look which the girl simply ignored. Just as Rachel was about to say something she was interrupted by the arrival of Mr Schue.

"Oh Santana there you are, I was worried when you left." Mr Schue said as he noticed Santana sitting next to Rachel. Santana quickly looked around, but no one else seemed to have heard, they were all busy having their own conversations. Except of course the midget who was listening to ever word they had to say.

"I had Cheerios practise at 6:30, I didn't want to wake you." Santana said quickly, still scanning for any eavesdroppers.

"Oh okay. And here's your phone, you left it on the table. Remember to call if you need anything." Mr Schue said with a wide smile, before walking to the front of the room to get everyone's attention. Santana zoned out, entertaining herself with her thoughts for the rest of the lesson. Once again she started thinking about what Quinn had said. Had she really gotten that fat? No wonder nobody wanted her, not when they could have someone who was skinny and perfect like Quinn or Brittany. A silent tear made its way down her cheek as she thought about how alone and fat she looked. She reached her hand up and quickly swiped it away, returning her attention back to the front of the class.

Rachel sat watching the Latina girl next to her. Mr Schue was at the front of the room explaining what they needed to do to win nationals, but she was no longer listening after all her suggestions had been ignored. Instead she decided to watch Santana, who by the looks of things also wasn't listening. Her eyes had glazed over and she was staring at the front of the room, except her eyes didn't appear to be focused. Suddenly a tear fell down the girl's cheek and then just as quickly it was wiped away harshly. Suddenly the girl appeared to be focused again, her eyes following Mr Schue's movements as she sat up a bit straighter. All of this was looking to be very curious, what with Santana crying and apparently sleeping at Mr Schue's house for the night. She would have to investigate this further. She was brought back to reality as she noticed everyone standing up to leave, it must be time for actual classes to start she mused as she headed out the door.

Santana walked into her first class of the day, chemistry. It was her favourite subject at school, she loved the idea that you could take one thing, mix it with another and then end with a completely new thing. It was also the subject she got her best marks in, so of course that made it more enjoyable. She looked on the board to see who was going to be her lab partner for the next month. It was a tradition of her teacher's, to every month rotate the lab partner pairings in the class. He felt that it gave everyone an equal opportunity, it meant that if you were ever stuck with someone you didn't like, or someone who wasn't very good at chemistry you would only have to put up with them for a month. And of course, guess who's name was right next to Santana's in big black marker? Rachel Berry.

Santana had to fight to hold back a groan as her teacher said that they would be working on a joint project with their lab partner for the next two weeks. Together they would have to identify an unknown substance using any test methods of their choice and then write a report on the identifying properties of the substance. That meant she would have to spend time with Berry. Outside of school.

"Hi Santana! Looks like we're going to be lab partners for the month!" Rachel said brightly as she took the remaining stool at Santana's bench.

"I know, I can read." Santana replied sourly, glaring at her teacher's back.

"Did you know that when people are grumpy it's normally because their blood sugar is low? Your blood sugar drops when you haven't eaten enough food." Rachel chattered as she rearranged the books on her desk, hoping to get a reaction from the other girl.

"My blood sugar is fine." Santana said bluntly, not looking up from the page she was reading.

"It can also cause paleness. Actually you look a bit pale..." Rachel trailed off, still waiting for Santana to take the bait.

"It can also cause loss of consciousness and difficulty concentrating. And as you can see I'm wide awake and having no problems concentrating. Well at least I wouldn't be if someone didn't keep interrupting." Santana spat out, her eyes leaving the textbook to glare at Rachel. The sudden head movement made a wave of dizziness rush through her and she quickly scrunched her eyes closed, her hands rising to her head as if to steady it.

"Oh yeah, you are fine." Rachel said sarcastically as she watched Santana swaying slightly in her chair.

"Okay listen Berry. If this is going to work you will be quiet. You will not talk to me about anything other than chemistry. You will especially stop whatever weird notion you have in your head about me. Got it?" Santana snapped, her previous bout of vertigo now forgotten.

"Blood sugar is chemistry." Rachel replied stubbornly, staring Santana straight in the eyes until the Latina looked away. Now she knew that there was something wrong with the girl, the old Santana would never have even given her a chance to talk back, let alone stare her down.

"Just stick to what's in the chapter." Santana ordered in what was supposed to be a firm commanding voice, but to Rachel it sounded more desperate than anything. For the rest of the lesson the two girls worked in silence, the only sound was Santana's pencil scribbling furiously across the page. Rachel risked a glance to see what the girl was so busy writing, her face falling into a frown as she noticed the complex equations set out across the majority of the page. So Santana was better at maths and literature, but apparently she was a lot better at chemistry than Rachel as well. It was amazing what you could find out about a person once you started observing them, even if most of the stuff didn't quite make Rachel happy. The bell then rung, signalling the end of first period. Both girls stood and started cramming their notes back into their folders, followed by pens and pencils.

"So do you think we should meet after school and work on this?" Rachel asked Santana before the other girl had a chance to walk out of the room.

"Whatever." Santana replied with a shrug. After a look from Rachel she amended her answer. "Sure."

"Awesome! So your house or my house?" Rachel asked.

"Your house." Santana replied quickly, she didn't want to risk Rachel coming over to a scene like last night. And the chances of that happening were actually pretty high, Santana knew how the cycle went by now. Her Mami would get drunk, then get high, then go to rehab, then turn over protective, then have sex and get drunk, causing the whole thing to start again. She noticed Rachel giving her an odd look at her sudden reply, so she moved to walk out of the classroom.

"Santana wait! How does six o'clock sound? You could stay for dinner."

"Six o'clock sounds great, but I'm going to Brittany's for dinner." Santana replied, she was relieved that she had an excuse to get out of the dinner.

"Cool, cya then!" Rachel smiled broadly as she almost skipped out of the classroom.

"Yeah." Santana echoed "Cya then."

**Okay so I'm sorry that this was a bit shorter than normal, but I'm going on a vacation to the city in like 7 hours, all of which I am supposed to be asleep for, and I didn't want to leave you all waiting for ages for an update, coz I honestly have no idea when I'll next be able to update so yeah, it was kinda short or nothing and I decided to give you short. But I can promise you that the next chapter will be filled with Santana/Rachel goodness, how could it not be if they will be chilling together at Rachel's place? So anyway I'm gonna go now, gonna need lots of beauty sleep for all the shopping I will be doing tomorrow! Peace out!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Well here you go...another chapter. And I really can't be bothered dragging out the suspense so go ahead, read it. Just kidding actually, you can read it in a minute. I just wanted to say wow! Like seriously, that last chapter got me so many emails! Maybe I should write shorter chapters more often...or not. But anyway it got me wondering what chapter has been your favourite so far? Seriously, I want to know! Anyway onwards to the story my awesome readers and even awesome reviewers!**

Santana stood on the front steps outside Rachel's house. There was no way that she would ever admit to this, but she was slightly nervous about going inside. Hence why she was still standing on the steps despite arriving at the house ten minutes ago. She took a deep breath before reaching out and pressing the doorbell, hearing the faint ringing that echoed behind the door. She adjusted the book bag on her shoulder as she waited to be let in.

"Hello?" A tall black man asked uncertainly as he pulled back the door. It wasn't until Santana realised that she was still wearing her cheerleading uniform did the source of his confusion become clear. She guessed it wasn't everyday that Rachel had hot cheerleading friends show up to her house after school.

"Hi. Is Rachel here?" Santana asked as she unconsciously played with the zipper on her skirt, it was a habit she had acquired for when she felt uncomfortable or nervous. She watched as the man stepped back inside the door and called up the stairs.

"Rachel there is a girl here to see you!"

"Who is it?" Santana could faintly hear the other girl's voice coming from what she guessed was her bedroom upstairs.

"Sorry, what was your name?" The man questioned as he turned back to face her.

"Santana. Santana Lopez." The man's brow furrowed a little, as if trying to place where he had heard that name before, he looked her up and down again before his face cleared in recognition.

"Valerie." He said, nodding his head slightly to himself. This time it was Santana's turn to be confused.

"Umm sorry, but what?" She asked hesitantly, a little bewildered by the man in the doorway.

"You're the girl that sung Valerie at Sectionals. You did an awesome job!" This time Santana could clearly hear the enthusiasm in his voice as he praised her. She felt the nerves that had been bundled in her stomach start to ease, no one outside of the Glee Club and Mrs Pierce had ever complimented her on her singing before, and they kind of had too so it never really meant anything.

"You were there?" Santana asked, a hint of embarrassment colouring her cheeks. She was never too sure how to take genuine compliments that weren't just meant to get her into bed.

"Of course. Hiram and I go to all of Rachel's performances!" He said proudly. Santana was a little jealous by this on the inside, her mother didn't even remember that she was in the club, let alone remember when her performances were. Every time it was Mrs Pierce who was in the crowd cheering for her, recording the home videos and then congratulating her later.

"Daddy who was at the door?" Rachel said as she walked down the stairs. She had gotten impatient when there was no answer to her question, so she had gone down to see for herself. She huffed when she realised that she was still being ignored. "Oh hi Santana!" She greeted when she saw her standing outside, a slight blush colouring her cheeks.

"Hey." Santana subconsciously wrapped her arms around herself when she noticed Rachel eyeing her up and down, her brow creasing slightly as she did.

"Come in." Rachel gestured towards the stairs before walking away; Santana immediately followed her after giving Leroy a shy wave. "I hope he didn't say anything to embarrass you." Rachel added once they were out of earshot of her father. She couldn't help but notice that Santana seemed rather uncomfortable, not at all like the confident persona she normally seemed to portray.

"No he was fine." Santana said. She couldn't believe the amount of photos lining the stairs, pictures of Rachel and her dads at so many different places- Disneyland, preschool, the park, camping and even a photo from what Santana recognised as their first Glee competition. She unknowingly stepped closer to them, examining each one carefully. Rachel had paused when she noticed that Santana was no longer following her and a look of confusion crossed her face when she noticed that the girl was looking at her family photos with an expression that looked remarkably like envy. The Latina seemed to snap out of whatever trance she was in as she continued walking up the stairs like nothing had happened. Rachel shook it off, putting it down to her imagination, as she pushed open her bedroom door.

"I'm just going to go downstairs to get us some snacks." Rachel said after a few moments of awkward silence. As she turned she noticed a small look of panic that had crossed Santana's face before it settled back into a neutral expression.

"That's okay, I'm not hungry." Santana said quickly, looking everywhere but at Rachel. Rachel's eyes narrowed suspiciously before she sighed.

"Santana..." She trailed off, looking at the other girl who was now staring at the ground. This one word seemed to make something snap inside her. Santana looked up from the ground with her bitch face back on.

"Look hobbit. I didn't come here to talk. I didn't come here so you could lecture me. The only reason I am here is to work on this stupid chemistry assignment. So unless you want the entire school to know that you have a photo of Jacob Ben Israel above your bed I suggest you keep that huge mouth shut when it comes to all things that aren't chemistry. Clear?" Santana practically snarled the last word, her eyes shooting daggers at Rachel.

"I don't have a picture of Jacob?" Rachel said as she looked at the ceiling above her bed.

"It will be my word over yours, and let's face it you say so many words that they just aren't worth a thing." Santana shot right back. "Or don't you know how blackmail works?"

"Fine. Chemistry only." Rachel relented, grabbing her text book off the desk and sitting on the floor. For the next hour the two girls worked in silence, only talking when absolutely necessary. They only stopped when Santana announced that she had to go to the bathroom. After getting directions from Rachel she walked out of the room, leaving her books on a pile in the middle of the floor. Rachel took this opportunity to read over what was written on Santana's notebook. As she read a feeling of anger overtook her and Santana chose this moment to walk back in.

"When were you going to tell me that you had already figured out what it is?" Rachel screeched. Santana looked confused for a moment before her gaze settled on her notes in Rachel's hand.

Santana shrugged. "It was kinda fun watching you try and figure it out. Anyway where's your bathroom, I need to wash my hands." Santana's question had thrown the diva, she didn't expect the argument to diffuse so quickly, causing her to shake her head a little before answering.

"The door opposite the toilet." Santana nodded and then headed out of the room once more. Once she left the song Bubbly by Colbie Caillat started blaring from the Latina's cell phone.

"Can you get that, it's Britt." Santana yelled from in the bathroom. Rachel hastily obliged, picking up the offending object and answering the call.

"Hello!" Rachel called brightly through the phone.

"Rachel? Why are you on Santana's phone?" Brittany asked in her signature tone, confusion.

"She's in the bathroom, we're working on a chemistry project together."

"Oh. Well can you tell her that she can't come over for dinner? Lord Tubbington has been naughty so he's not allowed to have friends over tonight. But that's probably a good thing because we are having seafood and San doesn't like seafood. Or my grandma. Do you think Grandma's coming? I bet Lord Tubbington was bad on purpose so San wouldn't have to come over!" Rachel listened patiently as Brittany rambled on. Sometimes she really couldn't understand how her and Santana were best friends.

"Okay Brittany I will make sure-"

"Sorry Rachel, I gotta go! Bye!" Rachel looked down at the phone as she heard the dial tone echo in her ear.

"What did Britt want?" Santana asked as she entered the room, a bright smile across her face at the mention of her best friend.

"She said that you couldn't come over for dinner. Something about a Lord Tubbington being naughty so you wouldn't have to eat seafood or be with Grandma?" Santana's face fell, she had been hoping to avoid going home tonight by spending the evening curled up in the Pierce's living room watching The Lion King.

"Oh. I, umm, I guess I'll just go home now. There's no point hanging around if we're finished." Santana flashed Rachel a sad smile as she started gathering her stuff off the floor. Rachel couldn't help but think that the girl sounded almost lonely.

"Wait! My offer from before still stands. If you want to stay for dinner you can? You know, now that you're no longer busy." Rachel half asked, half informed Santana, trying to keep herself from looking to hopeful. Santana pondered the offer, she really didn't feel like going home but she really didn't feel like dealing with Rachel's questions either. Why did Brittany have to cancel on her? She sighed, at least Rachel's father seemed pretty nice so it had to be better than home right? She bit her lip before nodding.

"Dinner would be nice." She said quietly, looking down at her hands. Rachel noticed the girl's demeanour change, she looked unsure, almost worried and Rachel didn't think that she had ever seen her look this fragile.

"Great! I'll go tell my fathers!" Rachel flashed the taller brunette what she hoped was a reassuring smile before practically skipping out of the room. Both men looked up as they noticed Rachel walk into the living room where they were watching tv.

"Hey Dad, Daddy! Is it okay if Santana stays for dinner?"

"Of course! The lasagne will be done soon and the salad's already made, so why don't you girls come set the table?" Leroy answered enthusiastically, he was excited to see Rachel hanging out with a popular girl.

"Who's Santana?" Hiram asked, the others had forgotten that he was not home when the Latina had arrived.

"She's one of Rachel's friends. She sung that solo at sectionals, remember Valerie? And guess what? She's a cheerleader!" Leroy grinned, wiggling his eyebrows as he mentioned her popularity.

"Oh really? That's great that you're friends with a popular girl! Is she really a cheerleader?" Hiram seemed shocked to hear about Rachel's 'friend'.

"Yes Dad. Head cheerleader actually. But do you need to sound so surprised?" Rachel asked shortly. The two men just grinned at each other, they knew it didn't take much to make their daughter angry and she would be over it by the time she got back upstairs. Leroy couldn't stop a chuckle from escaping as Rachel stormed up the stairs. She forcefully opened the door, startling Santana who had been day dreaming as she stared in the mirror. Rachel was so caught up that she didn't notice the hatred in the way that Santana was staring at herself and she had also failed to see the unshed tears glistening in her eyes.

"We need to go set the table, not that they'd make you do it since they obviously think that you are too good for me." Rachel spat out bitterly before stalking back out of the room. Santana took a deep breath to compose herself as she carefully wiped her eyes, making sure not to smudge any of her make up before she also followed Rachel down the stairs. The girl's attitude change hadn't surprised her, she had seen way too many Glee storm outs for that to happen and she knew that the best way to fix it was to simply ignore it. Sure enough by the time she had followed the voices into the kitchen Rachel was smiling and laughing as she placed four plates on the table. Santana stood in the doorway as she uncomfortably watched the seemingly familiar family interaction.

Leroy glanced up, noticing Santana hovering nervously in the kitchen entrance, her eyes following the movements in the kitchen as her left hand played with something on the side of her skirt. He frowned as he saw small goosebumps on her arms, the tiny uniform she was wearing couldn't have been very warm.

"Rachel why don't you go upstairs and grab Santana a jumper to wear." Leroy whispered to his daughter, nodding his head towards the taller girl when Rachel looked at him in confusion. She glanced around and saw the ridges of flesh rising up on the girl's skin, as well as the faint shaking in her limbs. Santana watched her leave in confusion as well as a bit of panic, she didn't know how she would go alone in a room with Rachel's dads. She wasn't really the type of girl that most people took to meet their parents, so this was slightly overwhelming.

"Santana why don't you start moving the food on to the table?" Rachel's other dad suggested when he saw how uncomfortable the girl looked. Santana let a smile grace her lips, relieved at finally having a set job to do. She busied herself with the task and jumped when she felt a hand touch her shoulder.

"Here. You looked cold so I got you this. It's probably going to be a little short, but at least you will be warmer!" Rachel said with a smile as she handed over a red sweater. Santana gave Rachel a grateful smile as she shrugged it on, her body being enveloped by the warmth it offered. Rachel had to fight back a frown when she noticed the fit of the sweater. Sure it was a little short, but the concerning thing was how baggy it looked on the girl and Rachel was not overweight by anyone's standard so there was no way it should be that loose fitting. However before she could comment Leroy told the girls to sit down as he and Hiram were waiting.

With everyone seated food started being dished onto plates. All three Berry's looked in concern when Santana only put a slightly larger than bite size piece of tofu lasagne, one carrot stick, one piece of tomato, a piece of capsicum and a few lettuce leaves on her plate.

"That's all you're going to eat?" Hiram asked as he eyed off her plate. Santana's heart was racing, she couldn't deal with questions, not now.

"I'm not very hungry." She mumbled, refusing to make eye contact with anyone at the table.

"Sweetie I really think you should eat a bit more than that." Leroy offered gently, pushing the tray of lasagne closer to her.

"I don't feel well." Santana said, wrapping her arms around her stomach. It wasn't really a lie, her face had gone pale as all the blood drained from it which gave her a slight headache and her stomach had started churning in either nerves or anticipation at the mention of food.

"Santana my fathers are right, you really should.." Rachel started to say before she was interrupted.

"I SAID I WASN'T HUNGRY!" Santana yelled as she stood up abruptly. Her breathes were now coming in shallow gasps and it felt like her lungs couldn't get enough oxygen. The dizziness had returned and she could feel tears starting to run down her face. She could faintly see Leroy and Hiram walking around the table to get to her, Rachel already next to her trying to calm her down. She felt a gentle pair of hands pulling her over to what she assumed was a couch, but the ringing in her ears was making it too hard to hear what they were saying. She felt her body fall into a heap on the couch and then felt it dip when someone sat next to her and held her upright. A paper bag was thrust into her hands and she felt hands encircling hers as they guided the bag up to her mouth. Slowly she started to hear voices as her breathing slowed, people telling her to match their breaths and that it was all going to be okay.

Rachel stared in shock as Santana pushed her chair back and started yelling about how she wasn't hungry. However she quickly realised something was wrong when she noticed how much the Latina's frame was shaking. Her eyes widened in concern as she heard the girl's breathing become faster and uncontrolled as tears started running down her face.

"Shh Santana calm down. Just breathe." She said as she stood up, starting to rub small circles on the girl's back. Santana gave no indication of having heard her or of having felt the hands on her back. Rachel noticed Santana's legs starting to quiver and started gently pulling her over to the couch, the girl's body landing in an ungraceful heap. She noticed her dads racing over to help as she sat down and gathered the other girl in her arms, trying to keep her in an upright position. Hiram knelt down in front of the pair, shoving a brown bag into Santana's hands.

"Santana I need you to breathe. In, out. Nice deep breaths. Into the bag. In, out. Try and match my breathing." He said, taking long deep breaths to emphasis his point. When Santana still showed no response Rachel cupped her hands over the darker skinned ones, raising the bag up to the girl's mouth.

"It's going to be okay." Rachel kept whispering as she felt the Latina's breathing starting to slow. She could notice the girl's awareness slowly returning, her eyes finally starting to focus. After what seemed like an eternity Santana finally lowered the bag, her breathing at a much more controlled pace. She reached up and swiped the tears from her face, cringing when she saw the black marks on her palms from her ruined make up.

"Sorry." Santana mumbled, clearly embarrassed about what had happened.

"Don't. This is not your fault Santana, there is no need to be sorry." Leroy stated firmly, his eyes glued to Santana's, trying to convey his message. "Now why don't you tell us what happened?"

Santana sniffed before opening her mouth. "I-I just. I.." She managed to stutter before all the colour drained from her face. Hiram noticed this and reached for the empty trashcan that was just behind the couch, having been emptied earlier that day.

"I think I'm going to be sick." She managed to get out just as the trashcan was shoved under her face. She leaned over, retching as her stomach heaved until remnants of the master cleanse she had drunk after school was expelled, the acidic taste burning her throat. Rachel continued to rub comforting circles on the small of the girl's back as she gagged. Finally she sat up, slumping back onto the couch as she let her eyes shut tiredly. They re-opened as she felt a cool glass of water being pressed into her hand and she looked up to see Leroy smiling sympathetically at her. She greedily drank the water, swirling it around a few times to get rid of the taste. She once again felt her eyes drifting closed, exhausted from the physical toll the last half an hour had on her body.

"Santana you are welcome to spend the night here, on one condition. You tell us what just happened to give you a panic attack." Santana just nodded tiredly, her eyes still closed. All she wanted to do was fall asleep. Leroy seemed satisfied at that answer. "Do you want us to call your parents?" He asked once it appeared she would be staying.

"She wouldn't even notice I was gone." Santana mumbled sleepily, before rolling over and nestling into the blanket Rachel had covered her with. The two men frowned, adding it to their list of things to ask the girl about the next day. Then they turned to Rachel.

"We need to have a talk."

**So I'm not real sure on this chapter, I don't know if I made Santana seem a little too crazy, but I felt like I owed you guys something! I'm working on a one shot at the moment as well, so keep your eyes peeled for that this weekend...that's if I'm not too busy watching Telethon to write haha! Sorry guys but Western Australia is obviously the best place to live, our telethon is the highest earning telethon per year in the world. 24 hours of non-stop entertainment here I come! Oh and just a warning that updates may slow a little, I'll try my hardest to not let that happen but I have the rest of my exams coming up and then I start all my final year classes. And yup I'm the idiot that decided to take every class at the highest level offered, well except in maths. I'm having a break there by taking the second highest...So yeah, at least I can now say that I warned you :) ****And now just to gross you all out I will leave you with a fact I discovered recently: On average a human will eat 8 spiders in his/her lifetime while sleeping. Paranoid now? *inset evil laugh here***


	6. Chapter 6

**Well, long time no see! Yeah so there's been this crazy thing called life which at the moment is making me feel like I have no life. Oh and there's this thing called school that seems to think I can spend every minute outside of school working on stuff for school. Like seriously I wrote 5 essays in 2 days last week! Kinda drained all my writing powers...but they are slowly coming back. So sorry that this chapter is a bit shorter, but I really didn't want you to have to wait any longer. So now my shout outs – to Abi for being lucky reviewer number 30, you always leave such awesome and heartfelt reviews. And for imalemonaddictt for keeping up with the tremendous reviews that you write for every single chapter, you are amazing! Oh and sorry if things are a little crazy in here, I haven't really gone through it hehe. And if you see a 'g' missing from a word it is totally not because I half broke that key. Not at all.**

Rachel nursed her cup of hot chocolate as her fathers watched her expectantly from the other side of the kitchen table. Santana was still asleep in the living room, not even stirring when Leroy placed another blanket over her slightly shaking form.

"Do you want to tell us what happened earlier?" Hiram asked softly, his eyes connecting with Rachel's pointedly. Rachel sighed and rubbed her eyes before answering.

"I don't know. I mean I suspected, but I never thought it was this serious..." She trailed off, her finger tracing the rim of the mug.

"Suspected what?" Leroy asked. He had a pretty good idea what it was, but he wanted confirmation to be sure.

"An eating disorder. It was just little things, like she'd never eat at school and she would get all defensive whenever I mentioned it. I just thought she was being a typical Cheerio, trying to fit in and get head cheerleader. It's no secret that half of that squad are either anorexic or bulimic. But seeing her tonight...I never thought anyone could panic so much at the thought of food. I should have made her get help as soon as I noticed something was wrong. " Rachel bit her lip to stop the tears from welling up in her eyes.

"Rachel this is not your fault." Leroy said as he walked over and embraced his daughter in a hug. "What matters is that now we know we can try to help Santana. Why don't we sit down and talk to her before school tomorrow? I'd wake her now but I think she needs the rest, it sounds like she's put her body through a lot lately." Leroy glanced over at the Latina who had curled up into a ball, dead to the world.

"Okay. But just so you know she's not exactly the easiest person to talk to." Rachel agreed to the plan, taking another long sip of her hot chocolate, draining it in the process. She stood up and placed the mug on the sink and went to head off to bed.

"Rachel," Hiram called "before you go to bed can I ask you something? Before she fell asleep Santana said something about her mother. Is her home life..?" He trailed off, looking for an answer to the unfinished question.

"I don't know, she doesn't talk about it much. Or at all. I've never even seen her parents show up at any of our competitions, she always comes with either Brittany or Quinn. But I think she stayed with Mr Schue last night, at least that's what it sounded like in Glee. Oh and she didn't seem to want me to go to her house to work on the chemistry project." Rachel's mind was racing, how come she had never noticed all this before? It made her wonder just how much the other girl was actually hiding from everyone with her bitchy exterior. She shook away the thought, saying goodnight to her fathers before heading to bed and falling into a deep dreamless sleep.

A loud scream awoke Rachel from her peaceful slumber. She sat up startled, glancing at her clock before getting up to determine the source of the noise. Who would be up at 2 in the morning? It took her a moment to remember Santana sleeping downstairs and with that thought in mind she raced down the staircase, noticing her dads both following her. Her heart broke at the sight that greeted her.

Santana was thrashing around on the couch, desperate whimpers and pleas escaping her lips as she fought with the blankets restraining her. A trail of tears were running down her face as they fell from her tightly closed eyes, her face scrunched as though she was in pain. Rachel was frozen in place, she didn't know what to do to help the Latina. Just as she debated how to wake the girl another scream ripped from her throat, startling the girl out of her nightmare.

Santana woke suddenly, her throat felt dry and raw and her breathing was erratic. She reached a hand to her chest to try and calm her racing heart, the other going up to rub her irritated eyes. She groaned internally when she felt the wetness on her cheeks. She was so sick of waking up from these fucking nightmares; it was almost a nightly occurrence now. It had been almost two weeks now where she hadn't woken up in a state of panic. Talking about panic Santana felt herself entering it again as she looked around the unfamiliar room.

"Santana are you okay? It's all right you're safe now. Everything's okay." Right, she was at Rachel's house. Rachel had just spoken to her, had just seen her flip out over a stupid dream. She was never going to live this down, the big, scary Santana Lopez reduced to a whimpering mess because of a dream. Then again she was never going to live down what happened earlier, why stop now?

"Hey sweetie, is everything okay? Did you have a bad dream?" Oh and her fathers had seen the whole thing as well, now they must think she was a total nutcase. Santana simply nodded, wishing she had just gone back home when she found out that she couldn't go to Brittany's. She should have known that nothing good would have come from staying with the Berry's.

"Do you want to talk about it? How about we all go into the kitchen and have a nice warm drink?" Hiram asked, although his voice left no room for argument. Santana stood up and shuffled into the kitchen, her blanket still wrapped firmly around her body. She sat down on one of the chairs and pulled her knees up to her chest, trying to avoid the sympathetic look that Rachel was giving her.

"Coffee or tea? Or even a hot chocolate?" Hiram asked from his place next to the stove where the kettle was boiling away, four mugs placed out on the counter next to him.

"Tea please." Santana said in a soft, shaky voice. She mentally kicked herself for sounding so weak, wrapping the blanket tighter around herself. She soon had a steaming mug placed in front of her, a plate with two biscuits following straight after. Without realising she pushed the biscuits away slightly as she reached for the mug, taking a small sip and letting the warmth spread through her. She jumped a little as Leroy pushed the plate of biscuits back towards her.

"You need to eat." He explained gently before asking the question Santana had been hoping wouldn't come up. "Why don't you tell us what your dream was about?"

All three Berry's watched as Santana tensed and paled slightly before drawing in a long breath to compose herself.

"It's always the same. I just...I see...They always..." Santana stuttered, staring into her cup.

"They always what?" Hiram prompted lightly.

"They always leave, they all hate me!" Santana half sobbed, her voice turning slightly hysterical as she broke under the kindness the family was offering her.

"Hey, it's alright. Who is it that always leaves Santana?" This time it was Leroy who pressed further, leaning over and rubbing his hand up and down the Latina's back at the same time.

"Everyone! My father, my Mami, Puck, Finn, Brittany! Everyone at school hates me!" This confession caused a new round of tears to start falling from Santana's already red eyes, causing the said girl to internally curse her vulnerability when she was tired. It was like she had no filter, she couldn't control what came out of her mouth.

"Santana not everyone hates you. Look at you; you are one of the most popular girls in school." Rachel joined in the conversation, not able to keep quiet for any longer.

"Being popular doesn't mean that people actually like you." Santana let out a bitter laugh, shaking her head slightly as she spoke.

"Santana, you said it's always the same dream, have you had it more than once?" Hiram asked, sensing it was best to get the girl away from her current train of thought.

"Every fucking night. It just never goes away, it's like I'm haunted." Santana spat, either not knowing or not caring about the fact she was swearing in front of them. This revelation shocked the diva, it seemed like she was learning about a new side belonging to the cheerleader, as well as the uncharacteristic chattiness the girl seemed to have acquired. The two men looked at each other, silently agreeing that it was best not to push that particular topic any further. After a few moments of silence Leroy spoke up again.

"Santana sweetie, why don't you eat the biscuits?" Santana's head shot up at the mention of the food, debating about whether to argue or not. A quick look to all of Berry's convinced her it was best not to, especially considering all the dangerous knowledge they had on her. She reached over and picked up one of the biscuits, breaking it in half before raising the smaller piece to her mouth. She chewed slowly and deliberately, aware of the eyes watching her. After swallowing the small half she picked up the bigger piece, this time chewing a little faster as the previous bites had awakened her hunger. The second biscuit followed closely behind and she took a large gulp of her drink to wash it down.

Rachel watched intently as Santana ate her biscuits. The girl's movements were slow and methodical, each bite was calculated and planned before it was swallowed. Rachel bit back the urge to cheer when the last bite had been finished with no signs of it coming back up. Well at least until Leroy had gone to get the container of biscuits, hoping to convince the girl to have some more. Santana's face suddenly drained of all colour, a hand clasping over her mouth as she scrambled to stand up. Her chair scraped across the floor as she finally managed to stand, her body turning to the direction of the bathroom. However she wasn't quick enough and vomit started to pool in her hands, eventually splashing onto the floor as she continued to retch.

Santana couldn't believe that she had just vomited in the middle of the Berry's kitchen. She didn't think she had ever been more mortified in her life, even including the time Puck's mom had walked in on them having sex. The feeling only intensified when she felt a soothing hand running across her back and another one holding a bowl out in front of her to catch the remaining splashes. She felt tears of embarrassment prick her eyes as she finally finished and noticed the mess on the floor.

"Sorry! Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Sorry! I'll clean it up, I promise! I'm so sorry!" Santana sobbed as she bent down to try and clean up the mess, her movements frantic and hysterical. A strong arm reached down and pulled her off the floor and guided her back to the couch she had been sleeping on before, gently pushing her down and pulling the blankets over her body.

"Relax honey, it's not your fault. There is nothing to be upset about, it was an accident and these things happen. Now how about you try and go back to sleep, I think you need the rest." Hiram whispered as he turned off the light before walking back into the kitchen. Leroy was just putting away the mop and Rachel was staring concernedly at Santana whose back was to the kitchen.

"You ok sweetie?" Hiram asked as he walked over to his daughter, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah I'm fine, it's just..." Rachel trailed off before finishing her sentence. "I feel like I should have noticed something was wrong earlier. She's always pretended to be this tough, scary bitch, but she's really just a scared little girl. Look out how much we found out in one night! If someone had just pushed her to talk sooner maybe it wouldn't have come to this. Maybe we could have helped her. "

"And maybe nothing would have changed. We are helping her now Rachel and that's all that matters. There's no point dwelling on the past. It's been a long night, why don't you go upstairs and get some rest, you have school in a few hours."

Rachel nodded, calling out a soft good night to both her parents and whispering a sweet dreams to a sleeping Santana as she passed her. Maybe tomorrow would be a better day.

Hiram and Leroy watched as their only child headed back upstairs to bed, noticing her quick interaction with the other girl.

"Do you think she's going to be okay?" Hiram asked Leroy as he gave a nod in Santana's direction. Leroy gave a deep sigh before answering his husband.

"I honestly don't know. She's just got so much going on and truthfully I'm worried. Especially about the vomiting, she seems to have no control over it. Do you think she's that afraid of the thought of food she becomes physically ill? How does a person get like that, how do things get that bad before someone notices?"

"I don't know what to think anymore. I feel so sorry for the poor girl, but I don't know what to do to help. Do you think it would be okay if I organised a medical appointment for her? You know, just to make sure it's nothing more serious." Hiram said in answer to Leroy's questions.

"I don't think we have much of a choice, I can't just sit here and watch her suffer, imagine if it was Rachel going through that, wouldn't you want someone to be there for her. We'll talk to the girls in the morning, see if we can get Santana to agree." Leroy let out a large yawn, eliciting a small chuckle from the man next to him.

"Maybe we should take our own advice and go get some rest." Hiram suggested, placing the half empty mugs from the table onto the sink before turning around.

"Sounds like a plan." Leroy said as he switched off the kitchen light. "We'll talk to the girls in the morning." And with that he trudged up the stairs, closing the bedroom door shut before climbing under the covers.

**Hopefully it wasn't too crazy, I just really wanted to give you guys something so I spat this out in a couple of hours. I've already got an idea for what I want to happen in the next chapter so hopefully that doesn't take nearly as long as this...but it might, depending on how demanding my new puppy is going to be haha! Over and out!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it an alien invasion? No it's an update! Which is way rarer than an alien invasion. Well November passed us by without an update and for that I apologise (I did post a one-shot though). But you might like to know that my schoolwork paid off, I won the Chemistry, Physics, Literature and Geography awards for my year at our final awards night. And it has been so long but I still need to thank some special reviewers – claireeleven, you always leave me such heart-warming reviews and I always forget to put you in the author's note. But you are now in! Imalemonadeadictt, thankyou for just being you. And the anonymous reviewer ****Imnumberwah, I'm glad you like both of my stories and thanks for having the dedication to read it all in one sitting! It's nice to know that you are always picking up new readers :)**

"Morning." Rachel greeted her fathers as she walked into the kitchen where the two were already eating breakfast at the counter. She walked over to the fridge and pulled out a carton of orange juice, pouring herself a glass before sitting down next to her dads.

"Where's Santana?" she questioned as noticed the girl missing from the kitchen and not recalling her still being asleep in the living room. Hiram nodded his head towards the kitchen window, Rachel following his movement to notice a lone figure sitting on the steps of the front porch.

"She was out there when we woke up, we didn't want to disturb her. We figured it might be best if you got her." Leroy explained, he was a much better morning person than Hiram. Rachel thought about this for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to approach the girl. If the stories that Quinn told were anything to go by, Santana was not exactly the most receptive person in the mornings. She had two stages of tired apparently, one which involved non-stop talking and no mouth filter and the other that left anyone nearby in tears. Making her decision she grabbed two apples out of a basket on the table, as well as a handful of cherries, and stepped outside. After all who could resist cherries?

Santana sat on the Berry's back porch, her legs dangling over the edge as she stared out into the garden. Her mind was racing, trying to think of an excuse for her behaviour last night. So far her mind was blank, she didn't think that they would believe her body had been taken over by an evil spirit so that left her with nothing. This was all her fault, she knew it. She bet Quinn would never have to deal with this, Quinn was so perfect, with her perfect blonde hair and her perfect skin and her perfect body. She had been pregnant and her body was still perfect, how was that fair? Santana was convinced that the gods must hate her, why else would she be so not perfect? She jumped as she heard a door open behind her, Rachel coming over and sitting down next to her.

"Hey." Rachel greeted softly, as if not to startle the girl again. The Latina did not answer, still staring out into space. She had noticed the stony look on the Santana's face had softened somewhat since Rachel had joined her, jolting her out of whatever thoughts she was having, but obviously not far enough.

"Santana?" Rachel asked, still trying to gain the girl's attention. She watched as Santana flinched slightly, blinking her eyes slowly before turning to face Rachel.

"What?" Santana snapped, a hint of anger in her voice. She was not ready to deal with this, last night was different because she had no control over what she was saying, but now she understood perfectly. And she was not happy about it.

Rachel sighed inwardly, obviously Santana was in her not so nice mode of tired. Which was not going to help her in the slightest, although she did note that it brought a strange sense of comfort to see the girl acting more like her normal self?

"I brought you something to eat." Rachel said simply, holding out the fruit as Santana eyed her warily. Pursing her lips Santana reached forward and grabbed a cherry, popping the entire fruit into her mouth without removing the stem. Several seconds later she spat out the stem, now tied in a neat little knot. Rachel looked in awe at the stem residing in the upturned palm of Santana's hand.

"How did you do that?" She asked, her eyes darting up to glance at Santana's and then at her own straight cherry stem. Santana just winked, grabbing an apple out of Rachel's hand before announcing that she was going to get ready for school, leaving Rachel still comparing the two cherry stems.

Opening the door Santana stepped into the kitchen, her eyes widening as she noticed the two Berry men sitting in the kitchen. Somehow she didn't think that her brilliant distraction technique she had thought of outside would work quite as well on Rachel's fathers as it did on the girl herself. Both men had turned when they heard the door open and were now staring at Santana so there was no way she could sneak past them to avoid any further questions like she had planned.

"Santana, good morning! Did you sleep well?" Leroy asked, sensing the apprehensiveness Santana was feeling and trying to lighten the atmosphere. Santana simply shrugged in reply, her eyes darting around like a wild animal as she remained in the doorway making no move to come closer.

"Why don't you come have a chat with us?" Hiram suggested, patting the empty seat at the table next to him.

"I – I have to get ready for school." Santana said, eyeing the stairs longingly. All she wanted was have a quick shower, stop by her own house and get changed and then go to school as if nothing had ever happened.

"It won't take long." Hiram added with a reassuring smile. Santana slowly walked over, reluctantly taking a seat as she refused to make eye contact with either Berry. She looked down into her lap where her fingers were weaving themselves through each other, another one of her nervous habits.

"I'm going to make this quick. To put it simply we're worried about you, both mentally and physically. Which is why we booked you a medical appointment for after school today." Hiram said, eyeing the girl for a sign of reluctance.

"You what?" Santana shrieked, pushing her chair back as she abruptly stood. "No. You have no right. I don't need your help!" Her final words ended in a choked sob as she grabbed her bag and stormed towards the front door. A loud bang echoed through the hallway as she slammed the door shut behind her, the sound of an engine revving a few moments after. The sudden noise caused Rachel to come back inside, her eyes scanning the room for the source of the noise as she walked.

"What happened? Where's Santana?" She asked after her quick scan showed no evidence of the Latina. Leroy looked up from where he had been staring into his coffee, a regretful expression etched onto his face.

"She left." He said simply. The confused look on Rachel's face urged him to continue his explanation. "We booked her into a doctor's appointment this afternoon. When we told her she freaked out, saying she didn't need any help. Then she just left."

"Rachel," This time it was Hiram who spoke, "Santana needs help. She's not going to get through this on her own."

"I know, but if she doesn't accept our help..." Rachel trailed off, rubbing her face tiredly. She felt like crying, she had seen Santana break down yet the girl left as if nothing had happened.

"Then we have to find a different way to help." Leroy said, an air of finality present in his voice.

Santana pulled up to school, parking in her usual spot at a run-down forgotten entrance of the building. The area was hardly ever used, making it the perfect spot to sneak out during the day if she needed an escape. She sat in her car, unbuckling her seat belt and just staring out the front window, thinking about what had happened. After she left Rachel's she had gone back home, taking a brief shower before leaving and as a result she was now a whole hour early for school. She rubbed her stomach slightly before leaning over and snatching her bag off the backseat.

She dug around in her backpack, searching for the small bottle of pain killers she had kept in there since her very first Cheerios practise. She located the white bottle, unscrewing the lid and washing two of the pills down with her water bottle in hopes that it would help her stomach. Her stomach had been aching for a few days now, but the pain seemed to have intensified this morning along with her exhaustion, both of which she blamed on her lack of sleep. She wiped a trickle of sweat off the back of her neck, deciding to get out of the car and wait inside the building where it might be cooler. She decided to go wait in the library where she could get some extra study for her history test in first period, not even noticing Rachel sitting in Miss Pillsbury's office as she walked past.

"Now Rachel, what can I do for you?" Emma questioned, looking at the girl in front of her as she organised the pens on her desk. It was not unusual for her to see students this early in the day, though it was not often Rachel came to see her and she was genuinely curious as to what the girl needed.

"I need to talk to you. About a friend." Rachel maintained eye contact with the guidance counsellor the whole time she was speaking, noticing the slight eyebrow raise as she claimed it was about a friend. Despite the red head's obvious disbelief at the claim she remained silent, allowing the girl to continue. After a moment passed and Rachel made no effort to elaborate Emma decided to speak up to encourage the girl to keep talking.

"Okay this friend of yours, what's their problem?" She emphasized the word friend, still maintaining her compassionate tone as she did so.

"I'm worried about her. I've tried so hard to help her, but she keeps putting up her stone walls that are impossible to tear down and I just don't know what else to do. I watched her as she fell apart and then got back up again like nothing had happened." Rachel kept it as short as she dared, not fully comfortable revealing the full extent of the situation to the other woman.

"Well Rachel I'm sorry you are going through all this, but I can't really advise you how to help her when I don't know what it is she is doing that has you so worried. I'm assuming you've tried simply talking to her about it?"

Rachel sighed before answering. "Every time I try and talk to her she gets so agitated and defensive, it feels like I make things worse. I couldn't even get her to eat this morning before she had run out."

"What do you mean you couldn't get her to eat?" Emma questioned gently, her large eyes boring into Rachel's looking for the answer to her question. By now she was convinced that the girl was telling the truth about it being for a friend and several suspicions were starting to creep into her mind.

Rachel froze at the question. She hadn't meant to reveal that much, she didn't even know why she had come to visit Miss Pillsbury in the first place. Her shoulders slumped as she realised that there was no turning back now.

"I think she has an eating disorder." Rachel half whispered the words, as if speaking them might make the situation worse. Emma pursed her lips at this admittance before sitting up straighter to address the girl.

"I'm going to ask you a question now if that's okay. Rachel is this friend you're worried about Santana?" The change in Rachel's posture as Emma spoke confirmed the answer, no vocal agreement was necessary.

"I-I never said her name," Rachel stammered "How did you know...?"

Emma smiled sadly before answering. "You're not the only one worried about her. Quinn was in here yesterday morning and Will, oh um sorry Mr Schue, was here as well. I've already cleared an appointment to see her during period six today upon his request."

"Well I guess I second that request." Rachel said as she stood up, tucking the chair back under the desk. "I guess if you already know there's not much else to talk about. Thanks for listening...and good luck with Santana. She needs all the help she can get right now." With those final words Rachel left, a certain Latina still occupying the majority of her thoughts.

Emma pinched the bridge of her nose as Rachel departed her office; she always hated having to deal with eating disorders. It was just so sad to watch pretty young girls think so little of themselves and Sue's cheerleaders were always the worst, obsessed with keeping thin and looking great to keep their position on the team. She had always thought Santana was stronger than that though, that she was more capable of seeing the stupidity of the situation the girls put themselves in. She remembered the last time she had to collectively talk to the Cheerios about the effects of eating disorders. Santana had very clearly stated her opinion on the 'skeletal anorexic idiots trying to become Slimderella so they can find their Prince Charming' which had assured Emma that she would not have a problem with Santana's eating habits. She should have realised then that Santana had been deflecting and the insults were simply a way of keeping people from getting to close. She sighed, hopefully she would be able to find out more when Santana came in.

The morning bell rung as Santana was packing up her books in the library, causing her to haphazardly cram them in as she started walking to class. She pulled her jacket closer around her body, her plan to get cooler had worked but now she was actually feeling a little bit cold. Stupid McKinley and their faulty heating systems, why couldn't the temperature just be normal? She walked in to her classroom and sat down at a seat in the back, not acknowledging anyone else in the class. Moments after she sat down her History teacher, Mr Reynolds, started to pass out the papers for the test.

Santana flipped through and read all the questions before starting to write her answers. It was moments like these where she was thankful she had nothing better to do than study, she was having no troubles recounting the dates and events of the First World War. Looking down at her answer for the last question, spilling over the lines and onto the blank space below, she flipped the booklet back to the start before carefully printing her name on the front cover. Pushing the completed paper to the side of her desk she looked up at the clock, noticing that there was still twenty minutes before she could leave.

She reached back and pulled her hair from the tight restrictions of her ponytail, letting it cascade over her shoulders as she leant back in her chair. She ran her fingers through the dark locks, hoping to ease the headache that was starting to form. Her stomach was still hurting and all she wanted to do now was sleep, the last few days had been way too stressful. She allowed her eyes to drift close as she listened to the furious scribbling of pens around her.

A hand on her shoulder startled her awake, her eyes opening to meet the less than sympathetic face of Mr Reynolds.

"My test to boring for you Lopez? You better hope you finished every last question in that booklet or else you can make up for it during lunch." He flicked through her paper, eyes narrowing at the completed questions. He huffed before addressing her, "You can go. Don't let me catch you dozing in my class again."

Santana rolled her eyes before walking out, she had held a deep dislike for the obnoxious history teacher since her first day at the school. She spun her combination into her locker and deposited her history books back on the top shelf before checking the time table tacked onto the door, sighing as she saw Glee highlighted in the next time slot. As much as she loved the misfit club she was not in the mood to deal with the people in it and she was really not feeling well enough to dance around and sing. She closed the door and started walking slowly towards the choir room dreading the next fifty minutes.

"One and two and three and four." Mr Schue counted as he instructed the club through the new choreography he was teaching. He turned around and watched as they danced their way through the group number, frowning as he noticed Santana stumble on one of the simple steps. It wasn't like the girl to be clumsy, she was one of the best dancers in the club so he let the mistake go, continuing to watch her carefully.

Santana panted as she tried to follow the steps for the routine, her hair sticking to the sweat on her forehead as she twist and turned around the floor. Sweat was dripping across her body, though she didn't feel overheated, just nauseous. Her head was pounding, her stomach felt like it was going to explode and she couldn't remember which way she had to turn for the next spin.

Mr Schue frowned as he watched Santana dance, something about her seemed off, it was almost as if she was not really trying which angered him slightly. It wasn't fair if one person didn't try because it ruined the dance for everybody else, and they had already restarted three times. He turned his attention back to the group for the next big turn, hoping that they might actually make it through the whole dance when something went wrong. Santana had turned the wrong way and crashed straight into Kurt who fell back into Tina, ruining the dance.

"I told you to learn these steps Santana!" Mr Schue half shouted, exasperated at the near perfect attempt of the routine.

At the same time as Mr Schue Puck had exclaimed, "What the hell Santana?" He threw his arms up in the air, glaring at the girl.

"I need a break." Santana tried to say, but her words came out thick and slurred, she was stumbling on her feet as she tried to move towards the chairs.

"Oh hell no you are not drunk!" Mercedes eyed the girl critically, her arms crossed over her chest and her mouth forming a thin line. Santana tried to shake her head in the negative but the movement made her dizzy, causing her to reach up to her head. She felt confused and sluggish, but a twinge in her stomach caused her to clutch it with both hands and let out a small moan of pain. Suddenly she vomited over the floor, small splashes landing on her pristine sneakers.

By now the previous anger the club had felt towards Santana had dissipated, replaced instead by concern for the apparently ill girl. Santana let out another moan before losing her balance and falling to the floor, narrowly avoiding the pool of vomit. Rachel rushed over to where the girl had fallen and set to work gathering the sweaty locks off her face, her jaw clenching when she eyed the physical appearance of the girl.

"Santana are you okay, you're shaking?" Rachel questioned, but received no answer from the very out of it Latina. Rachel gave a small gasp as her hand brushed over the girl's forehead and then turned to address the group.

"She's really hot, I think she needs to go to a hospital."

**So yeah sorry about that cliff-hanger...But on the bright side the next chapter should be up some time on the weekend! Amazing right, two chapters in less than a week compared to the usual two chapters in two months kinda thing I've had going on haha :) But I hope it was at least worth some of the wait! **


	8. Chapter 8

**So the response to the last chapter was slightly disappointing, but I guess I deserve that after being absent for so long! But anyway thank you to my faithful reviewers imalemonadeadictt and claireeleven, you never fail to let me down! This chapter is for you!**

The group immediately jumped into action to help the Latina upon Rachel's announcement, it wasn't hard to see that the girl didn't look very well. Puck bent down and gathered Santana's limp body into his arms, the girl only barely conscious as he carried her out to Mr Schue's waiting car.

"Okay, who's going to ride in the car with her?" The teacher asked the group as Puck walked up to the open car door.

"Me," Rachel declared "Me, Brittany and Puck." Her tone left no room for arguments and Puck was already trying to lay Santana down on the backseat, Brittany helping to place the sick girl's head into her own awaiting lap.

"Everyone else can follow in a different car." Rachel called as she climbed in the back with Brittany and Santana, Puck scrambling into the front seat as Mr Schue drove away to the emergency room. Brittany was stroking Santana's face with loving, delicate movements, the Latina's eyes fluttering every few seconds as she slowly looked around the car with no recognition of what was happening. A small whimper escaped her lips as the car travelled over a bump, causing Mr Schue to look at her through the rear vision mirror with a worried expression. He drove as fast as he dared until the car screeched to a halt outside the emergency room.

All four of them climbed out of the car letting Puck reach into the back to carry Santana before they half ran up to the automatic doors of the ER. One of the nurses at the counter looked up and eyed the group before abandoning the elderly man she was talking to, bringing over a gurney to place Santana on. Puck lowered the girl carefully trying not to jolt her and removed his hands once he was sure the girl was safely on the gurney. The nurse directed Puck to help her push the gurney into one of the trauma rooms down the hallway, all the while talking to someone on her pager. It was only then that Rachel realised the department was mostly empty, save for a few elderly couples and few mothers with their children, it scared her to think that Santana was the sickest out of everyone there.

They were met by a middle aged woman with a stethoscope around her neck. "Okay, what seems to be the problem?" She asked as she visually assessed the girl in front of her, maintaining a calm and professional tone.

"She threw up at school and then started clutching her stomach in pain. One of my other students, Rachel, noticed that she seemed to have a fever." The doctor nodded to the nurse who reached into a cupboard and pulled out a digital thermometer, inserting it into Santana's ear until it beeped. The display read 104.3 degrees, which the nurse turned to show the doctor. The doctor's eyes narrowed but she kept listening through the stethoscope she had inserted on Santana's chest.

"Her body temperature is dangerously elevated and she is suffering from rapid breathing and pulse." The doctor read out to the nurse who scribbled it down on a clip board before she turned to address the group. "What was her name?"

"Santana. Santana Lopez." Mr Schue replied, looking down at the girl.

"Santana? Santana can you hear me?" The doctor asked as she gently shook the girl who stirred a little but made no attempt to answer the question. Once again the doctor turned to face the group, "Did she lose consciousness at any stage?"

"No. She's just been in this barely awake state the whole time." It was Puck who answered this time, biting his lip and his eyes suspiciously moist. The doctor gave a curt nod before starting to feel around Santana's stomach, causing the girl to sluggishly move her hand to bat the invading hands away with a small moan.

"Okay that's good, we have some response. Now you mentioned stomach pain, are any of you aware if she has undergone an appendectomy before? She is displaying the typical symptoms of an inflamed appendix, which would require immediate surgical attention."

"She has. She had it removed last summer, she still has the scar!" Brittany answered through her quivering lips, slightly hysterical as tears streamed down her face. "What's wrong with her?"

"That's what we are going to find out Miss, but you need to calm down, panicking is not going to help your friend." Brittany nodded tearfully at the doctors words, moving back to sit in a chair near the doorway, Rachel following to comfort her. The doctor bustled about, strapping a blood pressure cuff around Santana's arm. She carefully pumped it up, reading the number off the chart to the nurse.

"Her blood pressure is pretty low, her oxygen levels are as well. We're hoping to bring those vitals back up." The doctor explained as she slipped an oxygen mask over the Latina's head, fiddling with a monitor near the wall. "Has she been vomiting often, or just the one time?"

Rachel decided it was her turn to step in. "She's been throwing up several times a day for about the last week, she's been having trouble keeping her food down."

"Vomiting and a high fever, she's definitely dehydrated then. Hook her up to a bag of saline and let it run through, I'm going to take some blood for a blood culture." Obeying the doctor's orders the nurse picked up Santana's left hand, swiping an alcohol rub over the area before inserting the needle and screwing in the intravenous line. The doctor removed her syringe from Santana's right elbow, a vial of blood now attached to the end which she tagged and placed in her coat pocket.

"I'm going to send this off to the lab for testing, until then there is not a lot we can do besides monitor her vitals. I'll call an orderly in to help move her to a more permanent room, and if one of you four that came in with her could fill in the paperwork for her admittance at the front desk you can see her in there shortly." With those final words the doctor left the room, Santana's blood still tucked firmly in her pocket. The nurse ushered the other four out to the main room, pointing out the right desk before rolling the gurney into a service elevator.

All four of them walked up to the counter together, the required forms being pushed towards them by a young woman. Mr Schue collected the papers and a pen, leading the group to a cluster of chairs against the wall so they could fill out as much of the form as possible.

"Full name?" Mr Schue asked them, not being able to recall the girl's whole name.

Brittany was the only one who could answer the question. "Santana Jaye Lopez."

"Date of Birth, March 18th 1994. Address, 37 Aston Close. Emergency contact?" Mr Schue once again turned to the group for the answer.

"Natalie Pierce." Brittany's quiet answer shocked the others who had been expecting Santana's mother or father, not Brittany's.

It was Puck who decided to voice what the others were all thinking. "What about her own mother? She's still a minor, aren't her own parents automatically her emergency contact?"

"She asked for it to be changed after the last time she was here. Her mom was too high to mention that San's allergic to the iodine stuff they use for x-rays. It nearly killed her. " The group fell silent as they absorbed the information and tried to picture the scene in their heads, Brittany smiling sadly at them the whole time.

After several moments Mr Schue broke the silence to ask the last question on the sheet. "Any medical conditions?" All three students responded about her lactose intolerance, Brittany specifying that it was a severe case and adding on the information about her allergy. With that Mr Schue stood up and handed the sheets back to the lady at the counter, where he had a brief discussion before walking back to the group.

"They've moved Santana up to a room on the third floor, apparently there is a better waiting room up there that..." Mr Schue trailed off from his instructions as a flash of blonde came running through the lobby, the rest of the New Directions following closely behind. The blonde woman ran up, tackling Brittany into a tearful hug.

"Oh baby I got your message, what happened? Is Santana okay?" The woman was slightly frantic, her eyes darting between her daughter and the other people gathered around.

"It was really scary mom! San was acting funny and then she just fell and she was really hot and the doctors don't know what's wrong with her!" Brittany was sobbing around the words, clinging on to her mother's neck as if her life depended on it. Mr Schue cleared his throat causing Mrs Pierce to gently release Brittany's hold and walk over to the man.

"I'm Natalie Pierce, Santana's emergency contact. Do you know anything about San?"

"Will Schuester. At the moment there is not much to know, just a high fever and pulse as well as low blood pressure. We were just going to go up to the waiting area near Santana's room." Following Mr Schue's lead the group entered either one of the small elevators going to the third floor. Upon arrival the teenagers all sat down in the padded chairs lining the area as Mr Schue and Mrs Pierce went to talk to the ward manager who was sitting behind a desk a few metres away.

"Hi, we're looking for information on Santana Lopez?" Mrs Pierce asked the man who appeared to be writing some form of report on his computer. He gave a brief nod before pulling up her information on the same computer.

"Ahh yes, Miss Lopez...She is currently in room 308. You can go in and see her if you like, but only a few at a time and don't disturb her, I believe she has fallen asleep. A doctor should be up shortly to reassess her condition and give you more information." The man relayed the information off the screen, indicating to a room on his left as he did so. The two adults thanked him before Mrs Pierce went towards Santana's room, Mr Schue heading back to the New Directions.

"Okay guys, you are allowed to see her, but only a few at a time okay? She is sleeping right now so you will have to be quiet but two of you can go in before her doctor arrives. Any volunteers?" Mr Schue asked the uncharacteristically quiet group, not at all surprised when Brittany immediately shot up from her chair. It was a bit more of a surprise when Rachel volunteered to join Brittany, however he waved them both forward and lead them to Santana's room.

Santana had been changed out of her Cheerio's uniform, a pale blue hospital gown was now covering her body and a thin white blanket had been tossed over her legs. Her face was still covered with an oxygen mask and she had been hooked up to a machine that was monitoring her heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels and temperature. Rachel heard herself gasp as she entered the room, she had not been prepared to see how small and vulnerable Santana looked while laying on the hospital bed. She walked over and picked up a chair from against the wall, carrying it to the left side of the sleeping Latina.

Rachel leant over and grabbed Santana's hand, being careful not to disturb the IV line embedded in the girl's skin. She rubbed small comforting circles on her palm as she watched Santana sleep, her gaze wandering to where Brittany and her mom sat, the eldest Pierce stroking Santana's sweaty forehead while Brittany traced patterns along her arm. It was obvious to Rachel that both the blondes cared deeply for the Latina and she found herself wishing that she could have spared them the hurt they were feeling by insisting that Santana see a doctor earlier. Mr Schue had remained just inside the doorway, his eyes slightly glazed as he observed his sick student and her friends whilst wondering what had gone so wrong.

The sound of the door opening startled all four of the visitors in the room, a head of dark hair appearing through the gap. The man walked into the room wearing a well worn black business suit, a nametag hanging from the front pocket that was occupied with pens and other utensils, a silver stethoscope slung over one shoulder.

"Hi I'm Dr Craig Riley, I will be Miss Lopez's primary physician for her stay." He offered the group a warm smile as he approached Santana's bed. They all moved back to allow the doctor more room to examine her, congregating in the corner parallel to the doorway as they observed his actions. He started by doing the same thing as the emergency room doctor, checking all her vital signs on the monitor next to her bed allowing a small frown to cross his face as he did so.

"Her fever hasn't gotten any better," he commented "but I am concerned about the pain in her abdomen." He reached over and shook Santana awake, softly calling her name as he did so. It took a few moments but the Latina's eyes slowly peeled open as they slowly took in her surroundings, a small moan escaping from her lips.

"Hi Santana, I'm Dr Riley, is it okay if I have a little feel around your stomach?" Santana slowly blinked her eyes as she absorbed the question before shaking her head slightly, her hands moving lethargically to wrap protectively over her stomach.

"I know it hurts Santana, but that's why I want to make it better. Can I just have a small feel to see what's wrong?" He coaxed, causing the girl to uncurl her arms from around her waist silently giving him permission to continue. His hands moved quickly over her stomach occasionally pressing down, trying to make the ordeal as short as possible with Santana letting out small murmurs of pain at every bit of pressure.

"The abdominal muscles do feel slightly tense, I would like to have a better look though. I'll see if I can get one of the techs to bring in an ultrasound machine since x-rays are not very practical at this point." With that the doctor pulled out a pager and set off a quick message, presumably to one of the techs he mentioned. Within minutes an orderly came through the door pushing the required ultrasound machinery.

Dr Riley started explaining the procedure to Santana, "I'm going to take an ultrasound of your stomach to see what is wrong, but first I'm going to need to lift up your gown, is that okay?" Santana gave a tired nod, struggling to keep her eyes open. With the girl's permission he lifted up the gown to expose her stomach, ensuring that her legs were still covered by the blanket.

"Okay I'm going to put some gel on your stomach, it has been warmed so it shouldn't feel too cold." Santana flinched slightly when he squeezed the gel onto her tanned skin, her fever making the gel feel colder than it was supposed to. Using the wand from the machine he spread the gel around, a grainy picture of Santana's stomach appearing on the screen. He gave several wide strokes back and forth before focusing on one main area, concentrating hard on the digital image.

"There appears to be an abnormality present in her abdominal cavity which is likely causing the pain. I'm going to send this over for an image clean up and they should be able to tell us what it is." He entered some information into the machine before leaving the room, promising to be back with the cleaned up picture and leaving the orderly to pack away the machine and clean Santana's stomach. As soon as they both left Santana's eyes drifted closed, the girl exhausted from the toll the last few minutes had on her body.

Rachel watched the rise and fall of Santana's chest, the oxygen mask fogging up with every exhale she took. Every so often the Latina's face would crinkle in her sleep making her look younger than she actually was, more innocent and vulnerable. Rachel was unaware of how much time had passed when the monitor near Santana's bed started beeping in a loud continuous tone. This noise caused several nurses to rush in the room and start fussing over Santana and the machine, looks of worry plastered on their faces.

Dr Riley also came running in, his eyes immediately drawn to the machine as he addressed the nurses. "What's going on?"

A female nurse replied as she moved aside to let him see the monitor, "We've had a rapid decrease in blood pressure, patient is unresponsive." With that news Dr Riley immediately turned around to where Santana was laying on the bed.

"Santana?" He asked firmly as he pressed down equally as firm on her stomach, hoping to elicit some response from the pain. Santana flinched slightly but showed no signs of awaking. Next he pulled back her eyelids, shining a pen light into her eyes.

"Pupil reaction is slow." The doctor was cut off from the beeping of his pager, which he pulled from his waistband and read. "Her ultrasound showed a severe infection in the abdominal cavity."

"Blood pressure is still decreasing." One of the nurses called out adding on, "Heart rate is increasing."

"Okay let's get her started on some antibiotics, increase the amount of saline as well. I'll arrange to have her moved to the ICU."

Brittany let out an audible gasp at the doctor's words, her lips trembling as her eyes filled with tears. The doctor turned, having forgotten about the spectators in the room.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

**So yeah, I guess I ended on a bit of a cliffhanger again, I sincerely apologise about that - I know as a reader how much they suck! So know I will leave you with my quote of the day that some idiot at the shop did not know how to obey: **_**Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.**_


	9. Chapter 9

**So next chapter for my loyal readers! Sorry it took a while but I am currently living the most amazing summer ever! My friend invited me out to her cattle station (have you seen the movie Australia? And they're just at that house in the middle of nowhere? This is what it's like, the nearest town is five hours away and all you can see for miles is gum trees and red dirt!) and we have been having the most incredible time. However there is no internet or phone reception out there so I can't work on this at all! I am writing this on my quick break back at home (needed to buy supplies) before heading back out there tomorrow which is why it is a little bit shorter. Hope you still like it though! **

The four walked over to the empty chairs in the waiting room where they were met by the curious glances of the other teenagers, none of whom had the courage to say anything upon glance of their defeated faces except for Puck.

"Where the hell are they taking her?" He exclaimed angrily as he watched an orderly wheel a sleeping Santana away, several nurses and doctors following to monitor the girl's vitals.

Mr Schue drew in a deep breath before replying in a sombre tone, "They're moving her to the intensive care unit."

"What! Why?" This time it was Quinn who jumped in, the worry painted on her face identical to those on her peers.

"The test results from earlier show that she has a pretty bad infection and the doctors are worried about it because of how low her blood pressure is getting." A heavy silence settled over the group as they digested the news, all of them concerned for the safety of their friend.

After several minutes of heavy silence had passed Rachel let out a sigh and settled further down in the chair, running a frustrated hand through her hair as she tried to wrap her mind around how much had happened since she first woke up. It had only been a matter of hours since her fathers had been planning a health check to prevent something like this from happening and here she was living it instead. Oh right her fathers, she had nearly forgotten about them. They were probably wondering where the hell she was by now, school would have finished at least an hour ago.

"I'm just going outside, I have to make a quick phone call." She said quietly, holding up her cell phone as proof. Mr Schue gave her a slight nod in acknowledgement, everyone else too caught up in their own thoughts to even notice her leaving.

Stepping out into the brisk air Rachel dialled a familiar number into her phone, holding it up to her ear as she waited for a response from the other end.

"Hello?"

"Daddy?" Rachel half whispered, half sobbed when the familiar voice came over the line.

"Yes it's me. Where are you Rachel? School finished over an hour ago?" Leroy's tone was not angry or harsh, simply curious to the whereabouts of his daughter.

"I'm at the hospital. Santana..."

"Oh you convinced Santana to go see a doctor? That's wonderful, how did it go?" Leroy interrupted Rachel when he heard Santana's name, he would have to admit that the girl had not left his thoughts for most of the day.

"No Daddy...Santana...She...She's really sick and the doctors are worried and now she's in the ICU and I don't know what to do!" Rachel sobbed, feeling herself beginning to ramble on as she succumbed to the emotional pressure.

"Shh baby calm down. Why don't you start at the beginning?"

Rachel took a deep breath to collect herself before starting the tale. "We were in Glee club and Santana collided with Kurt and then she threw up and just kinda fell on the floor. She felt really hot so Mr Schue drove us over to the hospital and the doctors did some tests...I'm pretty sure they said something about an infection, but her blood pressure was really low and she lost consciousness so now she's in the ICU. Can you just...?" She trailed off, squeezing her eyes close and shaking her head slightly in disbelief at the tale.

"You want me to come down there?" Leroy filled in the blanks of the question, the lines on his forehead deepening in worry for both his daughter and her friend.

"Can you?" Rachel whispered, not trusting herself to not break down again.

"Of course sweetie. Your Dad finishes work in half an hour, we will be there right after that. Are you going to be okay until then?"

"Yeah I'll be fine. Anyway I should really get back to everyone, you know just in case there's any more news about Santana." Rachel let out a sad smile even though she knew her father could not see it.

"Okay then, I'll see you soon. Good-bye."

"Bye." Rachel responded before snapping her phone shut and walking back through the hospital, entering one of the elevators. She went to push the button for the third floor but saw that it was already lit up, assumingly by the young woman next to her. The pair travelled in silence until they reached the desired floor, Rachel walking over to the Glee club and the woman going over to the desk.

"Woah. I never knew Santana had a sister! They look so much alike." Sam exclaimed, his eyes following the woman from the elevator. It was only then that Rachel saw the uncanny resemblance the woman had to Santana, from the tanned skin to the dark expressive eyes, although hers looked slightly bloodshot.

"That's not her sister. She doesn't have a sister." Brittany said, finally looking up from her mother's embrace to face the group.

"Are you serious? That chick looks like she could be Santana's twin!" Artie piped up from his wheelchair, looking at Brittany in disbelief which earned him a dirty look from the girl. The other glee clubbers had also erupted in similar outbursts of disbelief.

"Hold up, you didn't let her finish." Puck called out over their voices, silencing the chatter.

"She doesn't have a sister. That's her mom." Brittany finished as she eyed the woman in distaste, a similar look appearing on the face of the older Pierce.

"Oh wow, she's really young." Tina said softly, looking at the woman and trying to imagine her with a teenage daughter. A five year old maybe, but not a seventeen year old. It was hard to imagine that she was Santana's mother, it just didn't seem right. All of the club's heads turned in unison when the woman turned and approached them, trying to make it appear as if they hadn't been staring.

"I'm Louisa Lopez. The nurse said you were all here for Santana?" Her voice was blunt and her mouth was twisted into a scowl that everyone could easily recognise from her daughter.

"Yeah. We're all friends of Santana's. From Glee." Puck replied, his voice guarded as he maintained eye contact with Louisa.

"Glee? Well how do you know Santana?" She asked, a small laugh of disbelief escaping her lips as her eyebrows raised.

"Santana's a member of the Glee club. She has been for several years now, she is a very talented singer." Will stepped in to the conversation, his dislike for the woman after their meeting a few nights ago increasing tenfold.

"Huh figures, the girl never did know how to shut up." Louisa mused causing several members to shoot her nasty glances. She ignored them to answer her phone that had started ringing.

"Hi baby!...Oh just stuck at the hospital, Santana's gone and got herself sick...No, no don't bother coming she's probably just being her typical whiny self. Besides I need you to be at home ready and waiting for what I'm going to do to you tonight...Yeah you might need to go buy some more condoms...Alright, bye honey." The faces of several of the teens screwed up in disgust during the conversation, it was not really a topic they wanted to hear about from their friend's mom.

"Didn't any one ever tell you that cell phones aren't allowed in hospitals?" Brittany snapped, her normally bright blue eyes filled with hatred.

Louisa ignored her and turned back to address the group. "Well I guess if you're all here there really is no need for me to hang around. Tell Santana I'll see her at home whenever she gets out." With that the woman left leaving the New Directions to stare in disbelief.

"Fucking bitch." Puck muttered darkly, shooting daggers with his eyes at the woman's retreating back. Will didn't have the heart to reprimand him about language, every part of his being agreeing with the boy's statement.

Rachel could not believe that the woman she had just met was Santana's mother, surely even a bad parent would care when their child was in the ICU. And how on Earth were they going to tell Santana that the reason her own mother wasn't there was because she left to go have sex? But, she thought bitterly, judging by the looks on the faces of those who had known her the longest this wasn't exactly a rare occurrence. She was shaken from her thoughts when Santana's doctor walked into the waiting room, a frown etched across his forehead.

"Natalie Pierce?" He asked as he glanced down at the papers in his hand. The woman in question stood up, gently lowering Brittany back into the seat.

"Yes?" She questioned calmly, but the fear was evident in her eyes.

"We request your permission to perform emergency surgery on Miss Santana Lopez." The colour drained from Natalie's face as the words sunk in.

"O-Of course. But why, what happened?" She asked shakily.

"We now have reason to believe that Santana has developed what is known as abdominal sepsis. This means that the infection in her abdominal cavity has started to spread to the bloodstream. Her blood pressure is still very low which leads us to believe that she is at a high risk of entering septic shock, where the blood pressure drops dramatically preventing blood delivery to the major organs which causes them to shut down. If she develops septic shock the fatality rate is high even when treated, with twenty five to fifty percent of patients dying. Without treatment death is almost inevitable. The surgery will allow us to open up the abdomen to drain and remove the infected material and then flush out the abdominal cavity with antibacterial cleansers, hopefully preventing her from entering septic shock."

"Just do whatever you have to do to keep her alive. I'll sign whatever you need." Mrs Pierce said, her voice wavering slightly as the tears in her eyes threatened to well over. Rachel watched in sympathy, the pain both of the Pierce's were going through would be so much worse than hers, after all it was only in the last few days that Rachel would consider herself friends with the Latina. The attention turned to Sam when he stood up with a deep sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I'm sorry guys, I'm going to have to go. It's nearly seven and I promised by parents I'd be home for dinner...Ring me when she gets out of surgery?" The remaining teens murmured their agreement, with Tina, Mike and Mercedes saying they should leave as well. It was only then that Rachel realised Artie, Finn and Kurt had already left leaving just her, Puck, Quinn and Brittany as the only teenagers. She joined the others in the sombre goodbye's before sitting back down

"Rachel?" A voice questioned from the direction of the elevators causing the girl to whip around to see who it belonged to. She felt her body sag in relief when she saw the worried face of her two fathers, allowing herself to be swept up in their embrace once they were close enough.

"How is she?"" Hiram asked, allowing his eyes to scan across the waiting room before turning back to Rachel.

"She's in surgery at the moment, the doctor said they have to drain the infection otherwise she might die."

"Oh my god." Leroy breathed out, rubbing a hand across his forehead. "The poor girl."

"Not to interrupt the family moment or whatever but how exactly do your parents know Santana? Last time I checked you guys weren't exactly friends." Puck asked.

"She slept over at our house last night, we were trying to help her." Rachel responded, gesturing to her parents.

"Help her with what?" Puck demanded curiously. Rachel froze, how was she supposed to answer that? Santana would probably kill her if she told everyone about her little problem. But maybe it would be easier to help her if more people knew? No it would definitely be easier and these were her closest friends right?

"Her eating disorder." Rachel said with a sigh. As soon as the words left her lips Brittany started sobbing louder.

"Oh crap, not again. I thought she had finished with all of that. I mean I suspected but..." Quinn sighed heavily as she trailed off.

Puck kicked a chair in frustration before bursting out, "Why can't she just get that she looks fine! I thought after last time that this would be over damn it!"

"Wait what do you mean after last time?" Rachel asked cautiously.

"She went through a thing in freshman year where she was convinced that she wasn't pretty enough, that she didn't fit in. It didn't help that at that point she was the only one in the Cheerios that didn't have blonde hair and pale skin, Sue's not exactly the best for one's ego either. I caught her throwing up in the bathroom after lunch one day and the truth just came out. She continued for about another month before she stopped. She never told us what got her to stop, but it was about the same time we joined Glee and since then she's seemed fine. How did you find out?" Quinn explained the story, causing a few tears to fall from Rachel's eyes.

"I noticed she wasn't eating and I caught her throwing up at Puck's party when I knew she hadn't been drinking. Then I sang that song and she cried to me about it in the bathroom. The panic attack she had last night when we tried to get her to eat kind of confirmed everything." Rachel replied.

Will sat listening to the conversation of the teens around him. How could he have been so clueless about Santana this whole time? He had taught Santana during both of those times, in Spanish and then in Glee. She had even slept at his house and thrown up her food. But she didn't throw it up on purpose he frowned as he recalled the night.

"She seems genuinely scared of eating though. From what I've seen she doesn't force the food back up, her fear actually makes her physically ill." Rachel added on, not knowing she was voicing her teacher's thoughts.

The conversation about Santana was brought to a halt when the doctor came into the waiting room, his scrubs stained with what Rachel guessed to be Santana's blood.

"The surgery was a success." He said with a small smile, allowing looks of relief to cross their faces. "We did have to remove part of her small intestine, but that should not affect her. Worst case scenario is that she will have to take daily vitamins to ensure she is still getting enough nutrients. We're going to keep her in intensive care for a few more days to finish off a strong dose of antibiotics and to ensure that she recovers well after the surgery, but her blood pressure is slowly coming back up so we have every reason to believe she will make a full recovery. You can go in and see her if you want, she should be coming round from the anaesthetic soon but be aware she will likely be very groggy and disoriented. And just be careful of her abdomen, she's going to find it a bit sore and uncomfortable for a few days."

The doctor walked away and Rachel sighed in relief. "She's going to be okay."

**So a bit shorter, hopefully worth it though. And no cliffhanger, unless you were hoping to see Santana! But now I have a question for you which I really want to know the answer to – How did you find this fic? Were you searching for Santana? Or Rachel? Or did you just randomly stumble across it? Did someone tell you about it? Please answer, I really want to know haha! Anyway TTFN!**


	10. Chapter 10

**(Please bear with me for this stuff if it makes no sense. In approximately 23 minutes it is going to be midnight here and I'm a little tired so it may or may not make sense!) So truthfully – I may have lost a bit of interest in this story for a while there. I don't know if it was because I got busier (now that it's senior year I have a fair bit of study, I play basketball and soccer, my prom is next week and for some reason my popularity seems to be increasing at school which means I finally have something I can call a social life) or if I just got bored with this. All the planning I had in my head kinda stopped at that last chapter so I had no idea where I was going to go from there. And this chapter was the result. It took a while to write, but I think I finally got it out. And the good news is that it may have reignited my interest for this story again, it doesn't look like I'm going to be giving up any time soon. I still don't have a plan and I don't know how long it's going to take but you aren't getting rid of me that easily. Enjoy the chapter!**

The small group gathered outside the white door, waiting for one of them to grab the handle and push it open. Santana's name was printed in block letters across the door plate and through a window to the left of the door they could see the said girl fast asleep on her bed. Puck leant forward to open the door but a shout from Brittany caused him to draw back as if he had been burned.

"Wait!" Once all eyes had worriedly turned to the blonde she continued her sentence. "We can't go in there yet! We don't have any flowers or presents or cards! Santana can't wake up to an empty room; she'll think no one cares. We have to get her something to cheer her up."

"But Brittany what happens if Santana wakes up and there's no one there?" Mr Schue tried to reason with the girl but her mind was set.

"It'll take like ten minutes tops! There's a gift shop just downstairs! And look at her, she's sound asleep - it doesn't look like she's gonna wake up that soon."

Begrudgingly everyone agreed to go along with Brittany's plan, especially when Mrs Pierce talked to the nurse and found out that Santana would likely still be out for a good half hour. And Rachel did have to admit that the blonde's plan was a pretty good one, waking up to a room full of gifts sounded much nicer than just waking up to a dull hospital room.

As a group they travelled down to the first floor, only splitting up once they were inside the actual store. Brittany made a beeline to a display of brightly coloured balloons, her mother rolling her eyes before following. Mr Schue wandered over to a small flower stand and Quinn and Puck both walked over to a large shelf filled with various books and magazines. Rachel found herself looking at a collection of stuffed animals, her eyes roaming over each fluffy critter. Did Santana even like stuffed animals? Well surely anyone would like something to cuddle while they were sick and alone in hospital. Not that Santana was really going to be alone, but still. Making up her mind she selected a fluffy chocolate brown bear with a yellow bow around its neck, carrying it over to where the others were at the counter.

Rachel glanced around to see what gifts the others had ended up buying. Quinn and Puck had pooled their money together to buy several books and magazines as well as what appeared to be a child's colouring book and a pack of crayons. Rachel wasn't even going to ask about that one. Brittany had selected a handful of balloons, one of every colour as well as a rainbow "Get Well Soon". Her mother had chosen a more practical gift, a fleece pink bathrobe and a pair of fluffy socks. Mr Schue had chosen an arrangement of fake flowers, the sign above the real flowers warning that they weren't allowed in the ICU for fear of infections. Rachel handed over the bear and a twenty dollar bill. At the last minute she picked up a patterned diary from a table next to the counter, selecting a purple pen to go with it. From what she had heard that day in literature it seemed like writing was a way for Santana to deal with her problems, she might need something to vent in whilst being stuck in the hospital.

Once everyone was back up on Santana's floor they headed over towards her room for the second time. Once the nurse had given them all permission to go through Puck wasted no time reaching over to turn the handle and open the door, the group filing into the room as quietly as possible to not disturb the sleeping applicant. It was a bit crowded, even though Rachel's parents had stayed in the waiting room after the doctor had talked to them once Santana was out of surgery.

All the gifts that had just been recently purchased got piled onto a small table in the far corner of the room. Once Rachel no longer had to worry about dropping the present she turned around and pulled a chair up to Santana's bedside to get her first good look at the sick Latina.

Santana's face looked pale, her eyes slightly sunken and a small tube wrapped around under her nose, no doubt supplying oxygen into her lungs. Rachel could see the steady rise and fall of her chest with each breathe she drew in. It was strange to see the girl so unresponsive and vulnerable, she looked childlike in her oversized hospital gown and the machines by her bed made her look even smaller. She looked peaceful though and Rachel hoped that meant she wasn't in any pain.

Rachel wasn't sure how long she spent studying the sleeping girl in the silence of the room before she noticed Santana's nose scrunch up. She heard several of the others draw in hopeful breaths, all of them obviously watching her just as closely as Rachel was. A small groan came from the Santana's mouth, her eyes still tightly closed. A few seconds later her eyes peeled slowly open, looking around blearily before falling shut again.

"Santana?" Rachel asked from her position to the left of the girl. She received no response.

"Santana, sweetie can you open your eyes?" Mrs Pierce tried from the right of the bed but there was still no response. Santana obviously wasn't ready to fully wake up yet. The group returned back into their silence, anxiously waiting for the girl to awake.

Five minutes later the girls eyes opened again, squinting against the bright light as a small whimper escaped her throat. A frown was etched onto her features as she looked slowly around the room in confusion, her brain still foggy from the anaesthetic.

It took a while before she registered the voices speaking to her. "Santana can you hear me?" She turned her head ever so slightly towards the sound, blinking her eyes slowly as she tried to register who was speaking.

"Santana it's me. You had us so worried sweetie." The voice was coming from Brittany's mother, her hand gently caressing Santana's arm.

Still extremely groggy Santana tried to speak, her voice coming out in a confused whisper. "Mami?"

Santana was to out of it to notice the way everyone's face fell at her innocent questioning. Natalie took a deep breath before speaking gently to the girl. "No sweetie, it's Natalie. Mami's not here right now."

"Nat." Santana whispered, a small smile crossing her face as her eyes fluttered closed every few seconds. "And Britt?" She asked, her words slurring together.

This time it was Brittany who answered, a soft smile painted on her face as she gazed down at her best friend. "Yeah, and Britt. I'm right here."

"S'good." Santana mumbled, her words nearly unintelligible as she tried to fight off the overwhelming urge to sleep.

"How are you feeling?" Mr Schue questioned gently from the foot of the bed.

"M'tired" Santana replied, her eyelids feeling heavier with each passing second.

Rachel and several others let out a light chuckle at Santana's obvious response and her failing attempts to stay awake. Mrs Pierce finally took pity on the sluggish girl.

"Go back to sleep San. We can talk later, we'll all still be here when you wake up."

Santana nodded her head slowly, her eyelids finally winning the battle to stay closed. Within minutes her breathing had evened out and she was fast asleep again.

It wasn't long after Santana had fallen asleep that one of the nurses entered the room, flashing them all a sympathetic smile as she headed over to one of the machines.

"What are you doing?" Quinn questioned as the nurse started to check the readings on the machines. "Is something wrong?"

"No, no dear everything's as good as it can be right now. I'm just following protocol – all intensive care patients have to be checked on at least every hour to make sure things are running smoothly." She said whilst writing down some words on her clipboard as she read off the heart rate monitor.

Puck frowned, "So she's okay?"

"Yes, for her situation things are looking quite good. Her temperature is still a little higher than we would like and her blood pressure is still low, but both have improved since she first arrived. Now it says here that her heart rate was a bit uneven a few minutes ago which would suggest she is coming out of the anaesthesia. Have you noticed any signs of her waking?"

"Yes, just before you came in she was awake. She asked about who was here and then she fell asleep again. She didn't seem very alert though." Mr Schue spoke up, lifting his gaze from the bedridden girl to the nurse.

"Well it is very common for patients to slip in and out of consciousness before fully waking and the anaesthetic can make the brain a bit fuzzy. I would guess that she should be fully awake within the next twenty minutes if it's already starting to wear off. I will be right outside if you need me when she wakes." The nurse said with kind smile as she left the room, softly closing the door behind her. Rachel turned back to listening to the rhythmic beep of the heart monitor, watching as the thin green line zigzagged across the screen.

It was rather funny, she mused. The constant beeping that the machine let off in time with Santana's heartbeat should have annoyed her to no end, at least according to what she had seen in movies and read in books. Instead she couldn't think of a more calming sound right now that that monotonous beeping. It was like every single one of the quiet beeps were reminding her that Santana was still alive, that she was still breathing and her heart was still pumping. She frowned as she heard the beeping get slightly faster, twisting her head back around to check on Santana. Nope, nothing seemed to have changed from when she last looked.

She glanced down at her watch and sighed, this had to be the longest twenty minutes in her life. Well if you didn't count the twenty minutes on the way to the hospital when she thought Santana was going to die, or the countless hours Santana was in surgery, or even that time when she was six and she wandered away from her fathers at the mall and couldn't find them again. Oh and that time when she was lining up to meet Barbara Streisand in New York, there was also when she was about to sing her first solo...okay there were a lot of times, but even so this felt like it was taking forever. She was shaken from her thoughts when she heard a small whimper come from the direction of Santana's bed, noticing that everyone else in the room also seemed to become more alert.

Another whimper left Santana's mouth, her face scrunching up at the same time before her eyelids blinked open, squinting against the bright light in the room. Her hand lazily reached up to try and remove the piece of plastic on her face, her eyebrows furrowing when someone else's hand stopped her.

"No, no sweetie, you have to leave that there. It's helping you to breathe better, so we'll keep it there okay?" Natalie said, cautiously releasing Santana's hand after she had finished speaking.

Santana nodded slightly, pulling her arm back down to her side. She allowed herself to glance around the room properly for the first time, her confusion only increasing at seeing all the people in the room.

"What happened?" She asked croakily, the words directed to no one in particular.

"You don't remember?" Rachel asked before answering herself, "Of course you don't, you were pretty much unconscious the whole time. Well do you remember being in glee club?"

Rachel paused waiting for Santana to answer. Santana bit her lip, her face furrowing before finally shaking her head no. Rachel started to talk again but stopped when she noticed Santana trying to shuffle around on her bed.

"Wait, Santana that's probably a bad idea, you don't want..." She trailed off when Santana gasped sharply, her dark eyes filling with tears as the colour drained from her face. She leaned back down, screwing her eyes shut tightly against the sudden onset of pain that had hit her. She instinctively went to cradle her sore stomach, immediately pulling her hands away when that only caused more pain. She could hear her breaths coming in short gasps, whimpers of pain escaping at the same time.

"Shhh Santana, just breathe. Puck's gone to get the nurse and she's going to give you something for the pain, you just need to breathe and it'll all be over soon." Quinn spoke up from her corner, her voice calm and reassuring, a hint of experience twisted amongst them. Rachel guessed that the exact same words had been said to the blonde girl several times whilst giving birth to Beth.

"It's just like dancing Sanny. One and two and three and four." Brittany started to count slowly, trying to encourage the girl to breathe in time with her voice.

"It hurts!" Santana whimpered shakily, a tear escaping her closed eyes.

"I know baby, but you're going to be okay. Look here comes the nurse now, she's going to make it all better." Natalie said, pushing the hair back off the Latina's face.

"Oh dear, what happened?" Asked the nurse as she came rushing into the room.

"She tried to sit up before we could warn her against it, I think she irritated her stomach." Mr Schue informed the lady.

"Okay. Santana? I need you to tell me what your pain is, on a scale of 1 to 10. Can you do that for me?"

Santana nodded her head stiffly. She remained silent for a few moments, as if deliberating her pain. "Nine." She replied shakily, her voice tight.

"Okay I'm going to give you some medicine now Santana. You should start to feel a bit better soon." She said as she injected something into the IV bag carefully. "It shouldn't be long now honey, but I need you to focus on your breathing while we wait. Can you hear that beeping?"

Santana once again nodded. "Well that's your heart. And it's going a little bit too fast right now, so I need you to try and get it to slow down. Can you take some deep breaths for me? That's it, in and out. In. And out. Good girl. And again, in and out."

Gradually the noise from the heart monitor slowed back down and the colour started to return to Santana's face as the pain medication kicked in.

"Okay, much better." The nurse commented as she read off the machines next to Santana's bed. "Now Santana can you tell me what your pain level is from 1 to 10 again?"

"Two." Santana replied, her voice much stronger than before.

"Okay, that's good. I'm going to go and leave you to be alone with your family for a bit, but if you feel any more pain you can press this button here and it will give you some more pain killers on a restricted dosage, or you someone can get me again. If you have any questions your surgeon should be around shortly. Try not to move too much this time." She flashed a small smile at the brunette before softly walking out of the room.

"Okay what the hell happened to me? I feel like I've been hit by a bus." Santana demanded, trying to gain back her tough reputation after that little episode. Quinn just scoffed, clearly seeing right through the girl's intentions before allowing Rachel to continue her explanation from earlier.

"Where was I...Oh right so we were in glee and you seemed really spaced out, you ended up messing up our routine, not that anyone here blames you for that of course, it was not your fault that you suffered from such an unexpected dose of misfortune."

A pointed look from Puck caused Rachel to stop her rambling and get back to the important details. "Well anyway after we stopped dancing you were acting really weird and you threw up and then just sort of fell. Your forehead was so hot, it felt like you were on fire. We drove you to the hospital but they didn't know what was wrong until the machines all started beeping and then they had to take you into emergency surgery to fix some infection thing in your stomach. They even had to remove some of your intestine." Rachel finished, taking a deep breath before finishing her explanation. "You really scared us Santana."

"So some guy's hand was halfway inside my stomach and then kept some of it? That's gross!" Santana spat out, looking down at her stomach warily.

"Seriously Santana? We just told you all of that and the only thing you get from it is that?" Puck exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well what else am I supposed to say? I just found out that I totally embarrassed myself in front of the entire glee club by puking my guts out and then acting like some helpless chick that can't control her own body. To top it off I woke up in hospital with no idea how I got there, experienced the worst pain I've ever felt in my life because I had to have life saving surgery and even after all that my own mother isn't here with me." By the time Santana had finished her rant her lip was quivering and she was blinking furiously to keep her tears at bay.

Rachel was the fastest to act, leaning over and wrapping the Latina into a friendly hug, being mindful of her stomach.

"Hey it's okay. Everything's okay." She whispered into Santana's hair. The simple action caused the taller girl to completely break down.

"I'm so scared! And I'm tired, and I feel sick and my stomach hurts and I just want to go home!" Santana wailed through her tears, clinging tightly onto Rachel as she sought desperately for human contact. Everyone else in the room felt their heart's break from the uncharacteristic display of emotion Santana was showing.

"I know sweetie, it's a lot to take in, isn't it? How about you try and get some sleep and maybe things will feel better in the morning?" Mrs Pierce said from the other side of Santana after she had finally released Rachel from the hug, reaching up to wipe her eyes in the process. Settling further into the bed Santana allowed herself to feel the familiar hand of Natalie's rubbing comforting circles across her tanned skin. The continuous movement was actually sort of relaxing she thought, the gentle movements lulling her further and further into a state of relaxation.

"Promise?" Santana asked meekly, her voice barely above a whisper as her eyelids drooped dangerously.

"Promise what honey?" Natalie asked confused, maintaining her gentle rhythm on Santana's skin. The same look of confusion was painted on all of their faces at the simple question.

"That things will be better tomorrow?" Santana's voice was even quieter than before, but everyone in the room could hear the hopeful tone in her words.

Natalie sighed sadly before answering with a sad smile. "Yeah sweetie. I promise."

With those final words Santana allowed herself to be carried off to sleep, a small smile gracing her lips before all her features relaxed as she drifted into an exhausted slumber.

Rachel felt her own eyes begin to close as she watched Santana sleep peacefully, hoping with all her heart that the simple promise would not be broken. After all tomorrow was another day – but there was no telling if it was going to be a good one.

**So there you have it. The end of chapter ten. I made it all the way to the double digits. Seems crazy that this was only supposed to be a teensy-tiny little one-shot. Now it's the longest thing I've ever written! So was it an intense chapter. I mean it was intense to write but it didn't really feel like a lot happened. But that's how the saying goes; slow and steady wins the race. I tend to find that the more detail that is put into events, no matter how boring they might seem, makes them way more enjoyable to read than stories that fly past everything. I hope you guys are the same and aren't getting too bored haha! Hopefully you will hear from me soon, later guys!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Wow it's been a while! Are any of you still here? Or have you turned into dinosaurs in my absence? It seriously wouldn't surprise me. At all. But anyway I'm here now and if you're reading this then you must be here to! Now for some special mentions: The Lesbian Whisperer – Your review was amazing, it seriously made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! ***val-cb – For sticking with me for all this time, despite the fact I am the world's worst updater!***Anonymous reviewer Charlotte- You have also been there with me from the start, it really means a lot to me! Hopefully you're still around somewhere!***OTHangels, Sarah11650, raeganb123,getyourellieon – Thanks guys for always reading and reviewing, it's always a pleasure to see any one of your names in my emails! ***awsome1000-Since you found this story you've been a constant reviewer, I hope I can count on you again!***VickiiMadd – Your review made me finally get my butt into gear and finish writing this chapter, so thanks for that!**

**I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this chapter, it's been so long since I've written that I'm not entirely sure if it fits the flow of the story. I think Winnie the Pooh sums it up best with this somewhat confusing but meaningful quote - "****When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you sometimes find that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out in the open and has other people looking at it."**

A soft knock at the door startled Rachel awake from her dozing state. Stretching her arms over her head she glanced down at the silver watch fastened against her wrist, the small hand pointing somewhere between the five and six. She blinked her eyes a couple of times as she tried to establish her surroundings, a quick glance to her left bringing reality crashing down. She was at the hospital. Santana was sick. Santana was asleep on the bed. The nurse was knocking on the door. She was at the hospital because Santana was sick and sleeping to get better. Now things were starting to make more sense. The nurse was knocking at the door because...Rachel frowned, why was the nurse knocking at the door?

"Sorry to disturb you," the woman spoke with a soft voice as she entered the room. "I know it's early, but Dr Riley's shift is about to end and he wants to talk to you before he leaves. He'll need to speak with Ms Lopez as well."

"Thank you. I'll wake her for you." The soft voice coming from the other side of the room was the first indication that anyone besides Rachel was awake. At the back of the room she could see Mr Schue working on his laptop, but that was definitely not the source of the voice. Rachel turned in her chair to see Natalie Pierce tenderly stroking Santana's dark hair. Rachel could see the strain in her face, the bags under her eyes suggesting that she hadn't slept a wink. The woman gently shook the younger Pierce whose head was resting in her lap, shooting her a loving smile as her blue eyes peeled open.

Brittany yawned as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, her face dropping sadly as she saw her best friend. Her mother noticed her change in expression, rubbing her back as a show of comfort. She looked up to meet Rachel's eyes.

"Do you want to wake Quinn and Noah before the doctor comes in?" Rachel simply nodded in response, leaning over and gently calling Puck's name who was closest to her.

"Puck? Puck wake up."

Quinn's tired voice from the other side of Puck joined in. "You'll never wake him like that." She said as she leaned across and punched his arm, successfully waking the teen. Mrs Pierce watched with a raised eyebrow, shaking her head in amusement despite the situation.

"It always amazes me how much San and Noah are alike. Both are nearly impossible to wake." She said with a quiet laugh.

"Let me wake San mom. It works better when I do it." Brittany's voice was serious, the usual bubbly tone missing. She pulled herself out of her chair and walked over to Santana's bedside, stroking her tanned face lovingly. She leant down and placed a kiss against the girl's forehead, causing Santana's eyelids to flutter slightly.

"San, come on sweetie it's time to get up."

"Sueño" Came the mumbled reply from the bed. "Demasiado pronto para levantarse."

"English San." Brittany reminded gently as she stroked the girl's cheek.

"Hablo Inglés" Santana replied as she turned her head the other way, her eyes still clasped shut.

Brittany shook her head lightly, a soft smile painted on her face. "Still not English San."

This time Santana's voice was confused rather than groggy, "English?"

"That's the one." Brittany confirmed with a light chuckle.

"Mmkay. Sleep now." Santana mumbled out, her words barely intelligible. She nestled her head further against the pillow as she tried to fall back into an uninterrupted sleep.

Brittany rolled her eyes, "San you need to wake up, your doctor wants to talk to you." This caused Santana's eyes to shoot open.

"Doctor?" She questioned, her eyes darting around the room wildly as she tried to shake the disorientation that was plaguing her. Her room seemed to be lighter than normal and her pyjamas were itchier than she remembered, something weird was definitely going on.

"Uh huh. You're in the hospital remember?" Brittany explained patiently, used to dealing with the girl in the morning. She waited as she watched for clarity to pass across Santana's face, knowing as her eyes widened slightly that reality had finally sunk in. If that hadn't been an indicator enough the way the girl subconsciously looked down at her stomach was a dead giveaway.

"Right." Santana whispered softly, her fingers unconsciously winding together as she talked. That explained why the room looked so different from her black walls at home and why she wasn't wearing her usual sleepwear. She chanced another quick glance around the room, noticing several pairs of eyes studying her. She hated the way she was feeling so vulnerable and everyone sitting around and watching her while she lay helplessly in a bed was not making her feel any better.

"How are you feeling Santana?" Mrs Pierce asked gently, drawing the girl away from her thoughts. "Are you in any pain?"

"I'm fine." The girl's reply was soft, the last hints of sleep still dripping in her voice.

"Well that's always good to hear." An unfamiliar male voice entered the room, his presence commanding and comforting at the same time. He walked over to the machinery next to the bed, glancing over the numbers with a critical eye whilst Santana looked up at him with wide questioning eyes. He gave a soft chuckle as he noticed the bewildered look on the girl's face.

"I'm Dr Riley, I was your doctor once you were admitted last night. You gave us all quite a scare Miss Lopez."

Santana looked down at her blanket, lightly pulling at a loose thread. She wasn't sure how to respond to that statement, people didn't normally care what happened to her. Her silence didn't seem to faze the cheerful doctor as he carried on talking.

"Now I'm sure your friends have already told you a little about what happened, right?" He paused as Santana gave a slight nod of her head, not bringing her eyes up to make contact with anyone. "Okay good. So you're aware that what happened was a very serious situation then? If you're fever had of gotten any higher there is a very good chance that it would have killed you. The infection was already causing your organs to shut down, you were in the beginning stages of septic shock."

He turned to look at Santana, obviously waiting for some kind of reaction from the girl. After a moment's pause and no reaction from the girl he continued talking, using a much more serious tone.

"We managed to fix those problems during your surgery. What we are more concerned about now is how the infection formed. The most likely cause is that you have eaten something that has inflamed your stomach lining and allowed bacteria to pass through. This is usually the case with food allergies or something similar, do you have any of them?"

Santana felt several pairs of eyes staring at her as she hid behind a curtain of hair. She couldn't bring herself to look up and respond to the doctor, afraid of admitting her weakness. She wasn't sure where the doctor was heading with these questions and she didn't know if she wanted to find out. Questions nearly always meant bad things, particularly when you have a secret to hide.

Sensing that Santana wasn't going to answer Mrs Pierce spoke up, "She's got pretty severe lactose intolerance, would that cause it?"

"Oh yes, definitely if she has eaten something recently to disrupt it. Santana have you eaten anything with lactose in it during the last two weeks?"

"Snickers." Santana's voice was barely audible as she finally looked up to meet they eyes watching her. She couldn't help but feel like a goldfish having so many people staring at her and she noticed the way her friends' brows creased as she admitted to eating food that made her sick. She immediately dropped her eyes back down to the bed.

"A Snickers bar?" The doctor questioned, his voice purely professional but his eyes betraying his confusion.

"Just because she can't have them doesn't mean her tastebuds change! Snickers have always been San's favourite." Brittany jumped to defend her sickly best friend.

"Santana..." Quinn started in a sympathetic tone as she ran her fingers through her blonde hair.

"Look I know it was stupid! I shouldn't have done it and it ended badly! Whatever." Santana spat out, some of her old fire returning as her mouth twisted into a scowl.

"Okay well all that aside it led to an infection in your abdominal cavity. Normally this would not be the case and your immune system would quite easily be able to fight it off before it became so serious. However it seems that your immune system has been weakened Santana, which tells us that your body isn't getting the nutrients it needs to be healthy. We also noticed in the surgery that your stomach is constricted and tubular, a tell tale sign of malnourishment. Adding to that you are several pounds underweight."

The man gave Santana a pointed glance as he talked, making her duck her head to avoid his gaze. He knew. How could this have happened? She had worked so hard to keep her secret a secret. No one had even thought twice about her eating habits in the last year and suddenly Rachel comes along and everyone knows. She clenched the blanket tighter in her hands as she fought back tears.

"Do you understand what I'm trying to say here Santana?" The doctor's tone was gentle, his eyes never leaving Santana's form on the bed. The girl was now shaking, her eyelids clenched shut and her bottom lip turning white between her teeth. She shook her head as a tear escaped from her closed eyes and trailed down her cheek. Everyone in the room was now watching sympathetically, feeling sorry for the emotional turmoil this was putting Santana through but understanding that it was necessary.

The doctor let out a small sigh as he glanced at Santana, deciding to get back to the important information. "I've arranged for one of our counsellors to stop by later to have a little chat. We'll wait and see what happens after that, but for now strictly medically speaking you will be here for at the very least another three days. We'll keep you in ICU until your vitals are steady and you've finished your intravenous antibiotics, which will probably be later this afternoon or tomorrow morning. After that we can move you to a general ward until you are discharged. Now before I go I need to have a look at your stomach, okay?"

Santana nodded her head slightly, stray tears still running down her cheeks as she stared at the blanket. Dr Riley moved closer to her bed and pulled the blanket down to the girl's waist, gently prying it out of her hand. He guided her gown up to rest below her breasts, revealing the white bandage across her stomach. He peeled the bandage back, displaying a curved line of stitches that stretched approximately the length of his finger, maybe slightly larger. The area around the wound was red and inflamed causing Rachel and the others in the room to wince and Santana to turn her head the other way, her face paling. The man prodded the stitches as lightly as possible, checking that each was still intact. Despite his gentle touches Santana couldn't help but screw her face up in pain, her toned stomach muscles tensing in protest that was clearly visible. She let her body relax as he finally finished, wrapping the incision in a clean bandage.

"Well everything seems to be healing quite nicely, that swelling should go down in the next couple of days. For now I want you to rest as much as possible and try to keep you movement minimal. If you feel any pain just press the morphine button, or call for the nurse. I'll be back later to check on you again." With that the man walked out, finally leaving Santana in peace. She sunk back onto the pillows with an exhausted sigh, allowing her eyes to shut briefly.

Quinn started the conversation in a tentative tone, "Santana you know we're going to have to talk about what happened don't you?"

A frown creased Santana's forehead, her eyes still closed as she answered. "I know Q, I know. Fuck, when did everything get so messed up?" Her voice sounded desperate, almost defeated as she brought her left hand up to rub across her forehead. Her quick movement caused the IV line embedded in her hand to pull sharply, causing her to let out a quick series of words in her native tongue.

Rachel watched from her spot beside the girl, feeling a great deal of sympathy towards her. She knew that they had to get to the bottom of this, but it didn't feel right to corner Santana when she was stuck in a hospital bed, probably overwhelmed by the situation and still not feeling well. Not to mention how vulnerable she must feel with everyone watching her every little move and knowing the secret she tried her very best to hide. Now that everyone knew what was going on there was no way it could be avoided so did they have to talk about it right now?

Mrs Pierce obviously felt the same way, sending a sympathetic smile in Santana's direction. "Quinn's right sweetie, we will have to talk about it but we don't have to do it right now. The only thing you have to do is focus on getting better."

Santana shot a grateful smile towards her, finally allowing her eyes to open. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then shut it again. A moment later she started to speak in a quiet hesitant voice, not making direct eye contact with anyone in the room.

"Did you...Were you...Did you stay all night?"

"Of course we did sweetie, we weren't going to leave you here alone." The blonde woman smiled down at Santana and her sudden display of shyness, knowing how uncomfortable it was for the brunette to display her softer side.

Santana bit her lip, growing more uncomfortable with each passing second. "Thankyou, all of you."

It was Brittany who broke the tension, her enthusiasm immediately contagious. "San, I almost forgot! We have presents for you!" The blonde scrambled out of her chair and over to the portable table in the corner of the room. She wheeled it closer to the bed as she started inspecting the gifts that were scattered across it, a large grin spread across her face. Even Santana couldn't stop a smile at Brittany's enthusiasm; she was now getting excited to see what gifts she had received.

"Okay first we have some lovely flowers from Mr Schue," Brittany knelt down to smell the fake bouquet. "They don't smell very nice but you don't need water for them!"

Next Brittany picked up the brown teddy bear that Rachel had selected. Santana immediately reached her arms out to receive the toy, cuddling it against her chest as she stroked the dark fur.

"That was from Rachel, she also got you this." Brittany said as she held up the diary and matching pen before placing them back on the table. Santana turned her head towards Rachel, mouthing a silent thankyou before turning back to Brittany's ramblings.

"Quinn and Puck got you a heap of magazines and look San, your own colouring book with crayons!"

"A colouring book?" Santana questioned, her head tilting as she looked first at Puck and then Quinn hoping to find an answer.

"We thought it might be fun, like being in art class or something." Puck replied with a shrug of his shoulders. Santana rolled her eyes before peering back over to see what else was on the table.

"Mom bought you some socks and a new bathrobe to wear. Oh and I got you a heap of balloons but the nurse wouldn't let me bring them in. If you look out the window you can see them!" Santana's eyes followed Brittany's arm as she pointed to the glass window next to the door where a large and brightly coloured bunch of balloons were standing in the corridor. She tried to sit up to see them better, but the sting of pain that occurred in her abdomen caused her to lay back down. Well that and Natalie's hands guiding her back onto her pillows.

A few moments passed in silence and Santana was quite thankful for the peace it gave her. However it couldn't last long, especially when she was going to be the one who needed to break it.

"Rachel?"

"Yes Santana?" Rachel responded, curious as to why the girl had addressed her and not the others. The answer became more apparent when she took a closer glance at her face, noticing the bags under her eyes and the way she seemed to be tensed up.

"Can you, maybe, um press the button on the pain killers for me?" Santana's voice had dropped to almost a whisper at the end, still not happy with announcing her weakness to the room. Rachel leaned down to locate the trigger, finding it resting atop one of the machines monitoring Santana's vital signs. She pressed down on the button before placing it back, waiting for the medicine to have an effect on the other girl.

Santana could feel the medicine start to take its effect. The pain that had just started to get stronger was now turning into a dull throb, causing her to nestle into the pillows happily. She clutched the warm bear closer to her body, her thumb caressing the fur on its ear before moving down to fiddle with the bow. Her brain started to feel heavier, as if thinking simply took more effort. It took her a few moments before she registered that she was being spoken to.

"Did that work?" Rachel questioned, although she was already guessing that it had indeed as Santana seemed to sink further into her pillows, the previous traces of her tense muscles now gone.

"Yeah, it worked." Santana replied as she pulled her blankets up a little higher around her body. She was half listening as Quinn started to read out an interesting article from one of the magazines she supposedly bought for Santana's entertainment. Santana found her voice to be quite relaxing, almost soothing, as she talked. Santana could feel her eyelids getting heavier and harder to remain open, unsure if it was from the drugs or Quinn's voice. After a few more minutes she succumbed completely, allowing her world to fade to black as she drifted off into a deep slumber.

"What do you think San? Do you reckon it would actually work, or is she making it all up?" Quinn asked as she finished the article. Everyone's attention now shifted back away from Quinn to the Latina in the bed as they waited for her answer. Instead they found the girl with her eyes closed and her breathing even, most definitely in a deep sleep.

"I guess she didn't like the article." Puck said, earning him a slap on the shoulder from Quinn with the rolled up magazine.

"Those pain killers really knock her out hey?" Rachel whispered, careful not to wake Santana from her much needed sleep. Her only reply was a soft snore and a muffled sigh as the girl shifted a little in her bed. She reached over and repositioned the blanket that Santana had nearly knocked off already, brushing away a stray bit of hair as she did so.

"Sweet dreams Santana."

**Well we reach the end of another chapter! Hope it wasn't a complete waste of your time and you actually enjoyed some of it! I don't think it was a very exciting chapter, not much happened between the characters but it was a necessary chapter. Here are the Spanish translations if anyone wants them:**

_**Sueño – Sleeping.**_

_**Demasiado pronto para levantarse –Too early to get up.**_

_**Hablo Inglés – I am speaking English.**_

**Okay well I guess that's all from me. Thanks for reading (especially if you made it down to this little author's note). Over and out.**


End file.
